....and don't trust CASA to be responsible either. Operators could always apply for an exemption to one part of the original CAO 48, but had to offer something in return: e.g. if a particular trip required the roster to show 9 flight hours and 12.5 duty hours, provided the next 24 hours were free of duty and additional to normal days off, typically an exemption would be issued. Old-school FOIs were generally quite receptive to reasonable cases such as this. Maybe the current crop of FOIs don't have the authority or willingness to get involved with industry at this level, hence......
...... along came the 'Standard Industry Exemption'. What was CASA thinking to allow up to 60 hours of duty in a week? Or 100 in a fortnight? A train driver is not allowed to do that much.
The catch with the SIE, is that there is no mechanism to allow an exemption to something that is already an exemption. So the operators want more, and CASA look like they will be handing over more. Downright dangerous.