Love it Frank!
Sunny:
Creamy I agree with you, it goes without saying.
I’ll second that Creamy…AMROBA…ALAEA…etc!
AMROBA have been consistent in stating the obvious about ‘political will’ for change and openly discuss the risks/implications if there is no change to the current status quo, AMROBA News letter15/01/2013
(my bold):
Like all other political/judicial enquiries, this one has and will attract a lot of very sincere and appropriate submissions from many quarters. The outcome will be recommendations to add a provision in an Act or two, maybe additional regulations BUT never a real recommendation to rewrite the aviation legislative system to modernise our antiquated aviation system.
And from ALAEA Fed sec proposed letter to pollies (my bold)
:
Instead, CASA surveyors are out hounding small Airline Operators because they have made paperwork errors whilst genuine complaints against major carriers in this country are left idle. There are problems with this organisation that is meant to be keeping our skies safe. Whether it is through lack of funding or corporate capture, a review of how they operate is well overdue. The current Government appear to be out of their depth in dealing with these issues, we need to ensure that the next Government isn’t.
However Creamy then goes on to say...
"The machine has an automatic response to any issue: How many votes are in it? Even if all of the allegations that have been made against CASA and the ATSB are true, there is no political imperative to do anything about it. The issue is not one that will make or break any government..."
Which is again stating the obvious! The no ‘political imperative’, ‘no votes’ maybe relevant for the upcoming election, especially in the current political environment, but it is also in the interest for the major political parties to be keeping an eye on the future, Political parties also need to sustain future voting power.
Therefore if future votes could be dependent on acting or amending a not so popular policy now, then history indicates that politicians will take a punt (albeit occasionally), suck up the short term loss and act (classic example was John Howard’s gun buy back!).
In the case of the inquiry with all the damning available evidence and the levels of agency ineptitude displayed, would the pollies risk sitting on their hands and do nothing only to get ICAO dumping the ‘State’ down to level two in a future audit?
Taking the ‘sit on hands’ approach could have the potential to become ‘political suicide’ with the knock on effect of being downgraded to level 2 and the subsequent damaging effects it would have on the economy. The voter backlash could create a big enough swing to see a pollie/government out of a job!
Allowing the current status quo to continue could also lead to the decimation of General Aviation. The loss of the GA sector would be a significant hit to GDP and leave a lot of people out of a job. People without jobs are also voters!
Hmm interesting conundrum the Senators are in!
Sidenote: AG
'contempt for the rules' ??
Oh and Fed Sec gets a mention!
