NZ safety regs not suitable for Australia – CASA
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australianaviation.com.au at 3:31 pm, Wednesday April 30 2014 2 Comments
CASA has dismissed calls to adopt NZ-style regulations.
(Michael Thomas)
The Director of Safety at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), John McCormick has dismissed calls from industry to adopt aviation safety regulations similar to those of New Zealand.
McCormick said the New Zealand rules allowed for considerable discretion in regard to the intent of the regulations and what is acceptable for compliance, and that many of the provisions in the New Zealand regulations were not consistent with Australian legislative standards, definitions, and terminology.
“If we went in this direction we may need to amend the Civil Aviation Act and rework the new Civil Aviation Safety Regulations that have already been made,” he said on the CASA website. “This would be a long-term undertaking, involving several additional years of legislative redrafting and industry consultation.”
McCormick’s comments come in the wake of informal lobbying from industry bodies to Transport Minister Warren Truss to consider adopting New Zealand style regulations.
McCormick said the New Zealand rules left an operator open for prosecution if contravened, and that they contain too many differences to ICAO regulations. “We believe some rules may not offer adequate levels of safety and do not take into account Australian conditions and considerations,” he added.
Comments
2 Responses to “NZ safety regs not suitable for Australia – CASA”
1. Ben says:
April 30, 2014 at 4:54 pm
“… take into account Australian conditions and considerations,” Is that what bureaucrats say when they need a reason for making a decision to be more difficult than is required? Those same words have been dogging military projects for years, before we had a couple of very successful MOTS purchases.
Has CAANZ replied to his implication that their regs are unsafe? Will CASA one day realise that maybe their system of ‘Empty skies are safe skies’ isn’t the best formula?
2. Gerard says:
May 1, 2014 at 6:08 am
Given that all differences to the ICAO Standards and Practices (SARPs) have to be justified to ICAO, this smacks a little of “Not invented here”. I’d like to see these assertions supported by more detail.
Probably not. I seriously doubt this bill of goods can convince a good half of CASA, let alone a united industry, Senate and, with a bit of a push, the Minister. (my bold).
All good and well done 'The Australian'.