Creampuff:
They’ve snowed you and lots of others into believing that they’d intervene, if only they could understand the issues. Of course, the issues are so complex that lives would be at risk if they didn’t leave the experts in CASA to manage them, wouldn’t they?
Fawcett obviously has no idea. Heffernan; none. Nash; nada. Entsch; frozen with fear. Truss; powerless.
The mystique of aviation and all that
Creamy, this is where we differ. Many other public service institutions have decided to rely on the "technical complexity" and "risk" defences and they are now extinct. PM&C are quite capable of finding their own experts, if they in fact needed them.
In fact there are Two arguments that trump the "expert" defence every time and PM&C are the absolute masters of them: simple economics and administrative efficiency.
If, as I hope they will, somebody casts their eye over the cost and outputs of the regulatory reform program bells will ring. If they then look at the sheer volume of regulation compared to lot her countries, more bells will ring. If they then look at the economic costs of regulation on the Australian GA industry compared to other countries, the bells will reach a crescendo.
Then when they look at administrative efficiency, the first thing that will hit them is the shear lunacy of multiple inconsistent interpretations of the regulations and their complexity compared to the rest of the world, for example an FOI, when asked why there isn't a simple checklist of what is required of a private pilot flying a C172 to successfully complete any ramp check anywhere in the country told my friend that it was "Too complicated"!!!!! That should make another cathedral full of bells start ringing!
Then when they look at work flow, "projects", lines of authority, approvals, not to mention enforcement actions, there is a whole other mess to be found. Finally they will look at the likes of Barrier, Polar, Quadrio, hempel and others and the penny will drop.
CASA needs to be broken up. the ATSB needs its full independence restored and confidentiality restored by the creation of a strict liability offence for any ATSB person to breath a word to anyone. There needs to be an economic fostering clause in the legislation and enforcement must be totally separated from rule making.
It can be done. PM&C people could do it over a weekend if they aren't too busy.