New Leadership Needed To Go For Growth

Aviation hasn’t rated at all as an issue during the election campaign. Obviously there are few votes in the industry.

That’s probably a good thing, as it reflects what in the main is a fairly vibrant, growing and profitable industry, with few pressing issues of concern to the mainstream community.

But aviation does deserves greater prominence, and greater care from our political leaders.

The Coalition did announce some welcome aviation initiatives during the campaign, largely directed at the skills crunch. Probably the most welcome was a commitment to spend $9 million reimbursing 25 per cent of pilot training costs for pilots who remain with a ‘nominated’ regional airline for two years under a ‘Regional Airline Pilot Scholarship Scheme’.

There was also money for a new Australian Aviation Technical College to be located at Perth Airport, $250,000 for a cadet pilot certificate course to be run in conjunction with aero clubs, and $500,000 for planning to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As far as it goes that money is to be welcomed, particularly the regional airline scholarships and the new Perth technical school. But it is still indicative of a piecemeal approach to aviation.

The Labor Party, meanwhile, hadn’t released any policy regarding aviation (apart from a road around Canberra Airport!), at least at the time of writing. Hopefully it will have stuck its hand up and said “me too” to those Coalition initiatives, or even have bettered them with programs of its own.

But both sides of politics seem to be singularly lacking in a strategic vision for Australian aviation. The industry is facing many challenges, and a holistic approach to addressing those and creating an environment for sustainable, and safe, industry growth is sorely needed.

So far aviation policy has been piecemeal, and looming capacity bottlenecks and aviation safety risks present real challenges that need addressing.

How does Australia as a country and aviation as an industry address the skills crisis for pilots and maintenance engineers? How does aviation take part in and what will the impacts be of an emissions trading scheme? How is the local aircraft manufacturing industry to be fostered? How can the major airlines be encouraged to retain and develop their heavy aircraft maintenance facilities in Australia? How can the sometimes poisonous relations between CASA and industry be improved? How are services to smaller remote communities to be assured when there’s no economically viable replacement for ageing aircraft like the Metro? What’s the future of the Qantas Sale Act? How can aviation use at GA airports be not only guaranteed, but fostered? What are the best technologies to make airspace use more efficient? What further reforms of the airspace system are necessary? How can the aviation security regime be overhauled? There are plenty of questions, but few answers.

Perhaps the best example of both sides’ lack of aviation foresight is their sticking their heads in the sand over the need for a second airport at Sydney – Labor pledged to sell off the land reserved for the long dead Badgerys Creek second airport, while the Coalition’s press release announcing its aviation initiatives reads “the Coalition also remains strongly committed [our italics] to not investigate sites for, or build, a second Sydney airport and to maintaining the current Sydney Airport curfew and regional airline access. ” So what happens when Sydney Airport, constrained by a movements cap, curfew and regulated regional airline access, reaches capacity? Capacity constraints at Australia’s most critical piece of aviation infrastructure are already evident at peak times, and present a huge impediment to broader economic growth.

That short term-ism is indicative of both sides of politics’ approaches to aviation.

Instead, the next transport minister with responsibility for aviation should be offering ‘new leadership’ by looking at policy settings that really allow aviation to ‘go for growth’.

Whoever wins/won on November 24, it’s time for a new approach to aviation policy and development. Why not an aviation policy ‘white paper’? Indeed, why not a junior minister or parliamentary secretary with responsibility for aviation – aviation is an incredibly complex industry whose growth is critical for the nation’s prosperity. It deserves more than a part-time minister.