I realise this is probably discussed in some other thread, but I can’t find it at the moment.
CASA Director, Mark Skidmore, has made it clear that he is going to follow the Australian Government’s policy of giving primacy to safety as the “first principle” where he states in the recent CASA Briefing (January 2015) that he regards “
the safety of air navigation as the most important consideration”.
Many will know that for over twenty years I have objected to this as it’s simply not possible.
The most important consideration over
what?
If it means the most important consideration over cost, the only person flying will be James Packer – and he wouldn’t even be able to afford to do so. I have asked a number of Ministers for Transport to change that part of the Act so it says words to the effect, “
the most important considerations being safety and participation levels in aviation”. Of course, the bureaucrats have stopped this at every move. You wouldn’t want to actually reflect in the Act what happens in practice, would you?
Remember, the Act states quite clearly the most important consideration is safety - then refers briefly to the environment - thereby allowing the bureaucrats to stop any harmonisation with lower cost, internationally-proven rules.
One thing I have found with my two terms in Canberra was the total lack of ethics and the dishonesty in the system. Yes, the bureaucrats know that if the most important consideration was just safety, no-one would be flying. However, they insist the wording stays so it can be used to stop any real reform that they may object to.
Hitch has made some other similar and sensible comments in
The Last Minute Hitch article dated 23rd January 2015 – see
here