Issue 115: March 1996

However, all these people enter the saint category when you compare their efforts with the present minister. In fact, the present ALP Federal Government thinks so highly of aviation (and transport in general) that it allots Laurie Brereton not only aviation and transport but also the massively complex and controversial portfolio of industrial relations, which to our way of thinking he has also nicely stuffed up! Even if Laurie was working full hilt for us, how on earth could he handle this workload? If anything it’s a sad reflection on just how superfluous aviation is to the present government.

The Coalition on the other hand is lumping aviation in with tourism, a more sensible coupling that is both timely and logical. The Coalition would also move to foster a far more dynamic future for light aircraft production and R&D in Australia in addition to cleaning up the mess of the ALP’s childishly naive attempt at airport privatisation. There is even the faint glimmer of hope that sanity might eventually prevail and that the FAC might be privatised as a single entity rather than merely flogging off a few profitable airports at the expense of the marginals. This has been ALP policy and is very bad news for GA although fortunately it has been getting nowhere fast.

But let’s look at some of the ripper events of the past few years. We have a dismembered Civil Aviation Authority in favour of a Civil Aviation Safety Authority and AirServices Australia. In view of the continuing animosity between the regulator (CAA) and industry (particularly GA) it was on the surface not such a bad idea. However, all it has really resulted in is another bureaucracy with the same personalities in command under different designations and logos. Additionally, another layer of administrative bureaucracy has been created and in the long run nothing has really changed except a higher overall cost structure which industry will have to inevitably pay for. But there again Labor governments love this sort of ‘empire building’ so what would you expect?

4 Australian Aviation March 1996

Then we have the various multimillion-dollar inquiries underway into firstly the Monarch Chieftain crash at Young in 1993 and then the Seaview Rockwell Commander accident the following year and finally the Morris Enquiry. That these enquiries have cost in the order of a collective $20m is food for thought and at the end of the day I bet you they throw up nothing but a lot of buck-passing. After all, all three were really only instituted for political reasons, just as the constant changing of the guard of senior management at the CAA is and was for political reasons only.

A real aviation minister who carefully listened to industry and actually cared for the wellbeing of the portfolio would have moved quickly to enact change as required to make these time and money wasting exercises in political buck-passing unnecessary in the first instance. But of course, such was not to be!

Then there is the continuing debacle of Sydney Airport. Something that has received little publicity is that AirServices Australia has a sophisticated world class airways computer modelling system that it has developed in-house and which is so good that it has been purchased by Boeing and the Chinese Government.

This system has proved that if KSA was operated as a real airport it could accommodate upwards of 120 movements an hour. You won’t of course hear anyone at AirServices publicly verifying this and now that it is public there will probably be the inevitable witch hunt for those culprits who dare to tell the truth. Forget X Files, this is for real.

But of course that doesn’t change anything at Sydney today. The east-west runway remains closed just to protect the sensitivities of its elected representative/s and much of the rest of Sydney has to endure twice as much traffic as they formerly did for no real operational reason. Aircraft now are forced to fly low over much of Sydney that they previously did not have to, causing increased air and noise pollution and using hundreds of thousands of litres of extra fuel. Meanwhile delays continue at peak times and Badgerys Creek remains little more than a sick joke, designed to initially cope with about one twentieth of KSA’s current capacity and unconnected to the vital ground transport links that it needs in order to be credible.

In reality though, if Labor is ousted at the coming election it realistically means that the Coalition inherits the fruits of their endeavours. It is, however, what they then choose to do with this mess that counts. More of the same or a time for change? As always, the choice is yours.

Well Done!

Congratulations are in order for two vastly different groups of people this issue.

One is a very big organisation and the other very small though both rate high on the issue of professionalism and dedication to task.

We are of course referring to the men and women of the Royal Australian Air Force, which is celebrating its 75th Anniversary (p43) and the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society which has succeeded in safely bringing ‘home’ its Lockheed Constellation.

Well done to all of you, your efforts past and present are what the Australian can-do spirit is all about.