For all those doubters out there, doubt no more. Mr Skidmore has issued a directive!
According to Australian Flying, the directive says that "aviation safety regulations must be shown to be necessary". Apparently, the directive also says: "If a regulation can be justified on safety-risk grounds, it must be made in a form that provides for the most efficient allocation of industry and CASA resources. Regulations must not impose unnecessary costs or unnecessarily hinder levels of participation in aviation and its capacity for growth."
Pure visionary genius! If only someone had thought to give directives like that in the past. Oh wait ....
I also note from the story that there are, apparently, still people in the industry who believe these directives mean something in the real world. Oh dear ...
Meanwhile, back in the letters pages, Mr Skidmore says that "suspending the new licensing regulations now would only cause confusion, cost and administrative burden for the aviation community." Since when has that stopped CASA from doing something? I can't think of much that CASA does that doesn't cause confusion, cost and administrative burden.
Mr Skidmore goes on to say: "People have asked me 'why not suspend Part 61 and go back to the old regulations'? Let me be clear, the regulations Part 61 replaced have been repealed so there are no regulations to go back to and already more than 13,000 pilots hold new Part 61 licences".
Mr Skidmore is either poorly advised or ignoring advice. It would only take a one-sentence regulation to revive the old regulations. Just as an old licence is deemed to be a Part 61 licence, so a Part 61 licence could be deemed to be a licence under the revived regulations. I'm sure they could manage a one sentence regulation, having produced over 2000 pages of regulations in the quest for "safety through simplicity".
The straps on that straightjacket are evidently tightening around Mr Skidmore.