It has just dawned me why Aviation Law and regulation is so bad in this country. The so called governments of both political persuasion have never really been looking closely at the law they are voting for it has all just gone through on the nod because apparantly CASA knows best. Looks like here someone has actually understood what the consequences are and challeged CASA. As a result Mr Truss puts out a press release showing he has no idea about what it is he is voting on.
Suprised Leyonhjelm has been sucked in on this one he is supposed to be Small Government and anti bureaucracy.
Here's Warren Truss's thoughts:
Last night Labor bowed to union pressure and walked away from the long-standing bipartisanship approach to aviation safety—voting in the Senate to disallow a regulation put forward by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to improve safety arrangements in aviation maintenance.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said the regulation would have allowed specialists to carry out prescribed maintenance tasks, as they do now. However, instead of union engineers (the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association) signing maintenance certification, specialists would undertake the task.
CASA's advice is that the specialist maintainer is the most qualified, appropriate and competent to sign-off on maintenance works that they have completed.
“Labor's decision to vote down the safety regulator's considered position signals a dangerous departure from a long-standing commitment from both side of politics to allow the experts to determine safety issues,” Mr Truss said.
“The Government and Opposition have for many, many years supported the principles of an independent aviation safety regulator that is free from political interference. The Senate apparently thinks it knows more about aviation safety than the expert regulators.
“In one fell swoop, Labor's reckless opportunism has now made aviation safety a political football.
“Adding to the dismay and exposing Labor's base irresponsibility, the specialist maintenance changes that formed the basis for this regulation were initiated, developed and first implemented when Labor was in office.
“Labor has taken sides in a union dispute as to which workers should have responsibility for patching the paintwork and installing the carpet on an aircraft.
“Labor's veto of this measure sets back modernising Australia's aviation safety maintenance and means that we are out-of-step with major aviation industries in the US, Europe, Canada and New Zealand.
“Aviation safety is not—and must not be allowed to become—an industrial or political issue. It must be above party politics and it certainly should never be about what union a person undertaking specialist aviation maintenance pays membership to.
“This Government continues to believe in an independent aviation safety regulator allowed to implement safety improvements when it believes they are necessary.
“While Australia's aviation safety record is world renowned, continuous improvements need to be made.
“Labor is now in dangerous uncharted territory, casting aside independent aviation safety advice in favour of political point-scoring and doing the bidding of their union mates.”