I think Mr Byron, like his predecessor, is clever enough to know that regulatory ‘reform’ is one dead cat that’s best left moldering in the ‘pending’ tray. This question and answer (at page 124) occurred just before the passage quoted above:
Senator MARK BISHOP …
When did the regulatory reform program begin and when was it originally scheduled to conclude?
Mr Byron—The regulatory reform program commenced—and I might need to take advice from Mr Gemmell, who was in CASA at the time—in about 2002.
Mr Gemmell—The regulatory reform program in various guises has been going for many years. The last formal kick-off for the current program was 1999. It was reviewed in 2001, a review done by me—in fact, I was newly joined to CASA—and we set ourselves a target of completing it by December 2003. Mr Byron joined as CEO on 1 December 2003, and it was at that point it was refocused from the time to the quality.
I thought this expensive journey to nowhere began long before 1999, with the RSVP followed by the PAP or similar. It is surprising Mr Byron thought the regulatory reform program commenced in 2002. Wasn’t he on the board around the time Mr Smith put the kybosh on the regulatory reform program that had put the kybosh on the RSVP, and which itself was kyboshed by the “last formal kick-off for the current program”, which in turn appears to have been kyboshed by the decision to focus on “quality”.
At least we’ve managed to quadruple the size of the rules in the interim.
Q: What do you get when you cross a dead cat with a camel?
A: Australia’s civil aviation rules!