I noted with interest the fact that the government rep chosen to speak at the RAAA conference was the Parliamentary Secretary to the minister for industry...
Some may say this is typical of government (past & present) obvious dis-interest in all things aviation but on a quick perusal of Bob Baldwin's CV it is quite obvious this man is not a light weight in political circles, the man is a doer rather than (like Wuss) a snoozer...
Now the doomsayers may also say - "so what"- & that this is just more political posturing from the laborials but IMO this is an obvious sign that the government RTRB (Red Tape Reduction Brigade), of which BB is heavily involved, has been tasked with getting stuck into the 20+ year mess that is Fort Fumble's RRP...
As noted in Progressive's thread
here, yesterday FF quietly/stealthily..
.. released their contribution to the RTR program -
Red Tape Reduction and Audit :
The Australian Government has committed to a red tape reduction programme to boost productivity growth and enhance competitiveness across the Australian economy. One component of the programme is to undertake an audit of all regulations and estimate the compliance cost for a sample of those regulations. Further information about the red tape reduction programme can be found at:
Cutting Red Tape website.
Some of the spin & bulldust in the FF
Ranking of Regulations (
28KB) is truly vomitus..
..& perhaps deserves further comment on here but for a simple summary here is the Oz Flying take:
CASA Calls for Input to Regulatory Burden Rankings -
13 Oct 2014
CASA has called for industry input in to the regulatory burden rankings as part of the Australian Government's Red Tape Reduction program.
The regulator has posted a list on it's website and ranked each Civil Aviation Safety Regulation (CASR) or Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR) according to whether or not it sees the burden on industry as High, Medium or Low. The industry has been invited to submit their own rankings.
CASA's initial rankings were based on:
- the type of requirements the regulation imposes
- the complexity of the regulation
- the reach of the regulation
- the frequency of interactions with the regulation
- currency of review
- scope for reform.
Some of the rankings are likely to cause controversy as the CASA list appears to be at odds with what the industry believes is excessive burden. The following CASRs, which have proven contentious since introduction, have all been ranked as having low burden on the aviation industry.
CASR Part 141- Flight training other than integrated courses
CASR Part 142- Integrated and multi-crew flight training courses
CASR Part 147- Continuing airworthiness, maintenance training organisations
CASR Part 66- Aircraft engineer licences and ratings
CASR Part 61- Licensing has been ranked medium burden on the CASA list and Part 67- medicals has been ranked high burden, which is something
the industry will probably be happy to agree with.
The rankings list and instructions for input are all on the
CASA website.
Strange world of Politics - On another front (i.e. Airports) there was a media release (13/10/14) put out by the miniscule on funding for Pormpuraaw Airport:
WT204/2014
The funding contribution from the Fed/State government was..
"...The $1.04 million project was jointly funded by the Australian Government which invested $790,000 and the Queensland Government which contributed $250,000..."
...meanwhile, just last week, in a positive development for Coober Pedy..
:
Coober Pedy gets runway upgrade, keeps Rex service
Construction on widening the runway at Coober Pedy Airport will commence in November after the project secured state funding, in a move that ensures Regional Express (Rex) will be able to maintain services from Adelaide using Saab 340 aircraft.
The South Australian government has backed $1.3 million project to widen the runway to 30 metres, from 18 metres currently, so it will meet international regulations.
Coober Pedy district council mayor Steve Baines said the council was ready to begin work once the paperwork was settled.
“The threat to our vital air service has been lifted,” Cr Baines said in a statement.
“Losing the Rex flights would have killed off the tourism industry and had major impact on the residents of Coober Pedy and surrounding areas. Council and I are delighted that this has been resolved.”
Figures from the SA government showed 75 per cent of passengers on flights to Coober Pedy were visitors to the town.
SA transport and infrastructure minister Stephen Mulligan said the runway upgrade would allow regular passengers services to continue unrestricted to Coober Pedy.
“The prospect of losing commercial flights to Coober Pedy was unacceptable to the South Australian Government,” Mulligan said.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said on September 4 aspects of the current arrangements for Rex to operate to Coober Pedy did not provide the “appropriate continued management of safety on an 18-metre sealed runway with gravel edges”.
“CASA believes it is in the best interests of the travelling public to introduce new safety standards for all narrow runway operations across Australia, including Coober Pedy,” CASA said.
CASA said Rex would be permitted to operate into Coober Pedy while the runway widening work was carried out.
“It should be noted that leading aviation nations such as the United States, Europe and New Zealand do not allow narrow runway operations under the arrangements that have been in place in Australia,” CASA said.
“However, CASA believes it is in the interests of the Coober Pedy community to allow these flights to continue in the short-term because any restrictions could cause social and economic disruption.”
So the miniscule dodged a bullet there...
While in Victoria there was another airports & politics issue, from the -
Last Minute Hitch: 10 October 2014:
The $1 million grant to
Tyabb is causing some controversy, as it is the home club of Minister
Gordon Rich-Phillips. Naturally, the
opposition is calling it a conflict of interest and saying the airport doesn't qualify under the guidelines of the fund. Firstly,
Rich-Phillips has stated that he took the conflict to the
Department of Premier and Cabinet and washed his hands of the grant. That was absolutely the right thing to do, and it is what the Labor Party would be saying he should have done had he not done it. Secondly, the aviation fund is for regional airports be they public or private ... it says so in the guidelines.
But, the biggest question in my mind comes when you reverse the situation. Should
Tyabb have been excluded from funding because the minister was a member? That doesn't seem fair to me;
Tyabb has the right to apply the same as any airport does. As for the issue of the airport being privately-run, where were Labor's slings and arrows when
Lethbridge was given a motza to seal their runway? I wonder if we'd even be reporting this story were a state election not coming up in November.
The strange..strange world of politics...
MTF...
