Truss: Aviation Safety Regulation Review

[Sarcs]

Around the traps.

To begin I would first like to note that Dougy is MIA and his SARtime note has expired... Oh well here is hoping that all is well...

MMSM Steve has been busy here are two of his offerings, both published at 12am today: Norfolk Island probe ‘flawed’ & Coalition backs safety review

I won't rehash either of those articles but needless to say SC has succeeded in regurgitating most of the information already put out by his peers. He does however manage to get a quote or two from the RAAA which is new:

Regional Aviation Association of Australia chairman Jim Davis said yesterday that his organisation had always supported the ASRR report.
“We’ve always seen it as the way forward. We’ve seen it as the blueprint that was needed to reform CASA and to bring regulatory reform in Australia back into balance,’’ Mr Davis said. “So we’re very pleased to see that the majority of recommendations in the report have been adopted.’’
Mr Davis said the RAAA had not agreed with the rejected recommendation.
“The only reservation we have at this point is that quite a lot of recommendations were agreed to but in principle only,’’ he said, adding the RAAA would like to see these issues followed through and not lost because of technical or legal difficulties.
“We’d like the see the spirit of the ASRR report carried through right to the end to achieve a satisfactory result with CASA and the regulatory reform program.’’
Mr Davis welcomed the appointment to the CASA board of Mr Warfield as “an excellent choice’’ because of his breadth of experience.
“In fact, we think all the board members are a good choice,’’ Mr Davis said. “We think they provide quite a cross-section of the industry and quite a breadth of experience and we believe most of them. or all of them, will be hands-on and get quite involved in this process of restructuring and bringing governance to CASA.’’

Given the comments from Creamy & Co on AerialAg Phil I thought it was apt to include Proaviation's article on just that subject..: Agricultural operators welcome government’s ASRR response

The Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia, one of the most energetic critics of the regulator’s recent performance, has warmly welcomed Government’s response to the Forsyth Aviation Regulation Review and the Deputy Prime Minister’s appointment of an additional three experienced aviation people to the CASA Board.

AAAA CEO, Phil Hurst, said that the appointments to the CASA Board were “a critical first step to reform of a dysfunctional CASA.”



“AAAA has previously welcomed the appointment of a new CEO of CASA, Mr Skidmore, and the announcement today of three new Board members – all with aviation experience – is another strong downpayment on improving CASA governance and creating a better relationship with industry,” said Mr Hurst.

“The Government’s detailed response to the Forsyth Review is also a very positive statement of intent to both reset the CASA/industry relationship and to bring CASA up to speed as a regulator we can be proud of.
“In particular, AAAA welcomes the Government’s commitment to issue a new statement of expectations to CASA that will give effect to the recommendations in the Forsyth Report.

“By committing to a risk management hierarchy based on a classification of operations (Recommendation 28 in the Government’s response), the Government will reinforce the value of identifying sectors of industry that are capable of delivering safety outcomes with CASA support, as witnessed by AAAA’s ongoing work with CASA on establishing a sector risk profile for aerial application.

“AAAA fully supports the Deputy Prime Minister’s decision to not force the transfer of ATSB’s safety education role to CASA as ATSB’s education role is fundamentally different to CASAs.

“AAAA notes, however, that good policy intentions from the Government must be converted into coherent actions and improvements by CASA. Industry desperately wants meaningful change in its interactions with CASA – including improvements in response to issues such as regulatory reform, AOC issuing and amendment timeframes, licencing and reductions in costs.

“The government’s response today should represent a very welcome turning of the page for aviation policy. AAAA remains fully committed to working with the government, the new CASA Board and the new CASA CEO to deliver a better aviation industry for all Australians.”

Finally Hitch gives a pretty good summary of the weeks events as they unfolded...: The Last Minute Hitch: 5 December 2015

The week just past may be remembered in Australia as the turning point in the fortunes of aviation in this country. A series of good-news stories rolling out of Canberra displayed a willingness to change on behalf of government, and a recognition that a long barrage of complaints had to have some merit.

Oddly enough, Australian aviation's good-news week started in Canada when the Canadian TSB published their review of the ATSB. Comparing ATSB methods over three investigations, it found that they failed miserably to apply good practice to the Pel-Air Norfolk Island ditching investigation. That they found little else wrong with the ATSB but that begs (and fails) to ask why that particular report and no other? Had they found regular, serious systemic issues you would write-off Pel-Air as just another instance of mismanagement, but as they didn't, we can't. My love of a good conspiracy theory drives me to smell political interference.

The applause from that had barely died down when Warren Truss rose in the lower house to deliver the government's response to the Forsyth Report. For aviation's movers, shakers, lobbyists and supporters, the response was effectively vindication that the struggle they have been through was right. The government response gives new Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore a mandate to return CASA to a position of respect and integrity within aviation. It demands a culture change, better engagement with industry, less Draconian measures, a system of regulation built on justice and a new era of accountability. In the shortest possible words: Warren Truss wants the second "A" in CASA to have meaning. So, now we the aviation industry have 80-90% of what we wanted, what are we going to do next? The time for agitating and non-co-operation appears to be over. It's OK for the government to embrace reform, but the industry has to get in on the group hug or next year we'll all still be complaining. The sun has shone ... let's make hay.

Certainly there is one man in Australia who is feeling the sun on his face this week: Dominic James. Since the ATSB squarely blamed him for ditching Westwind VH-NGA off Norfolk Island in 2009, he has been working hard to get the ATSB to withdraw the report and straighten out some anomalies in the reasoning and look a lot closer at the systemic failures. This week, the government has agreed with James, and stated in parliament that it will ask the ATSB to consider re-opening the investigation. After the damning senate inquiry and the Canadian TSB review, this call should be enough to sway the commission to withdraw the report and this time do it properly.

And we finally have the last three members of the CASA board. It has been a while coming, but the new look board now has a good mix of aviation people and governance experts that are capable of exerting full control over CASA. The previous board remained too anonymous to be able to gauge their performance, except to say that a good board is not anonymous. Mid next year, we can expect the board chair to pass to respected aviation identity Jeff Boyd. Not a lot of bad news there, either.

Where bad news did come from was the loss of Gordon Rich-Phillips as Victorian Minister Responsible for the Aviation Industry. With the change of government last weekend, Australia lost its one and only aviation minister. Whether or not you are Liberal or Labor, Gordon did some fantastic work for aviation, fueled by an enthusiasm for general aviation. His work improved the lot of the general public in regional Victoria with significant airport upgrades that would enable air ambulances to operate from airfields previously excluded. We all owe him a vote of thanks.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

MTF...

Ps If Dougy turns up will update...