CASA Red tape reduction and Audit

[Sarcs]

RTR repeal day - The Miniscule wakes up (briefly)

Yesterday - RTR repeal day - the miniscule actually woke up....for a brief period and delivered this joint Media Release:

Rigorous infrastructure policy approach is cutting red tape

Improving productivity growth and enhancing competitiveness are key focuses of the Australian Government's deregulation policy, embodied by today's Spring Repeal Day.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said the regulation ‘spring clean’ is an opportunity for the Coalition Government to focus its attention on ways it can encourage growth and improve productivity by reducing compliance costs for industry.
“The Coalition Government is committed to saving business, individuals and the wider community at least $1 billion a year, by reducing the costs of unnecessary and inefficient regulation. The Government has already announced $2.1 billion in net savings—more than double our target—thanks to our drive to cut red tape,” Mr Truss said.




Reforms in the Infrastructure and Regional Development Portfolio include:

• The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has replaced overly-prescriptive technical requirements for the design and construction of vessels to improve safety outcomes and increase flexibility for boat designers, builders, owners and operators (a $6 million saving to industry)
• New motorcycles sold in Australia will no longer require modification to be fitted with an Australian specific rear mudguard, bringing Australia in line with Europe (a $14 million saving to industry)
• Changes introduced by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to licensing and flying training regulations will save the aviation industry more than $2.5 million while maintaining Australia's high safety standards
• CASA has recently removed a regulatory barrier prohibiting the use of smart phones and tablets during take-off and landing, adding around 40 minutes of productive time for business passengers

Assistant Minister Jamie Briggs said 4,309 unnecessary and outdated regulations within the portfolio were in the process of being repealed.
“A major review of the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989 is also underway to identify options to reduce the regulatory burden on business and consumers, while improving safety outcomes,” Mr Briggs said.
Mr Truss said he will continue working to find efficiencies wherever possible.
“While the Coalition Government has made significant progress, there is still more work to do,” he said.
“Future priorities include reducing red tape in coastal shipping regulation, the heavy vehicle industry and at airports.”
For more information on the Australian Government's deregulation agenda in the Infrastructure Portfolio, visit www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/deregulation/index.aspx

Now if you follow the above Dept link and go to the bottom of the webpage you will find another link:

Deregulation in aviation DOCX: 471 KB PDF: 187 KB

Quotes from the PDF version:

Safety improvements

•  The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is conducting an ongoing programme of reform to remove redundant provisions in its legislation and regulations—some 3,000 items were removed on the Autumn Repeal Day 2014 and more are expected to be repealed in future repeal days.
•  CASA has also made changes to simplify and improve administrative processes, and to remove the duplicative and outdated requirements no longer required in a contemporary aviation environment. Many of these changes benefit industry participants in both commercial and general aviation.

Global competitiveness

• The Qantas Sale Amendment Act 2014 was introduced to ease foreign ownership restrictions on flag carrier Qantas, providing business flexibility for Qantas consistent with other airlines based in Australia.
• The Airports Amendment (Service Monitoring) Regulation 2014 was updated to remove unnecessary record keeping requirements for four major airports.

Future areas of focus

• The Government is actively considering its response to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review, released on 3 June 2014. A key finding is the importance of regulator behaviour, which is also a major component of the Government’s drive for best practice regulation.
•  The Department is continuing to undertake reforms at the 19 leased federal airports in light of the feedback from a comprehensive Review of the Airports Building Control and Environment Protection Regulations in 2013.
•  The Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Warren Truss, has encouraged regulatory agencies to adopt best practice regulation standards, with a particular focus on achieving transparency, accountability, clear communications and risk-based approaches wherever possible.

Without any empirical or factual evidence, the parts in bold are what I consider at this stage (until proven otherwise) merely weasel words and therefore - absolute bollocks!