Green and White Papers

The government’s aviation issues paper is available from the Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure website – www. infrastructure. gov. au – and is compulsory reading for anyone with a stake in the future of aviation in Australia.

However, if you have been in this industry long enough, you can’t help but have the uneasy sense of deja vu. Is this to be another period of unsettling change that continues to miss the real problems with government involvement in aviation – expense, inefficiency, poor management and a lack of considered policy? While many of the challenges and opportunities facing the heavy end of the industry are addressed in the issues paper – such as aviation’s impact on climate change via CO2 emissions, airport developments and access, new aircraft that are incredibly fuel efficient and quiet – there is still uncertainty whether the new government understands how much of a brake their role puts on general aviation.

A key example is the government’s approach to CASA. CASA doesn’t have aviation related problems – it has good old fashioned management problems.

This is not to say it is the individuals there, although people are always part of the management equation – but it is certainly about a lack of urgency and clear direction in improving structure, fixing policy, and making events in the field match the central policy.

There’s been plenty of ‘talk’ but not a lot of ‘walk’ from CASA and previous ministers. Minister Albanese faces the same challenge – how to make CASA work well.

A key area for change should be the way CASA has structured delegations to its own staff – whereby individuals are given the power to determine whether ‘CASA is satisfied’ with one requirement or another. Not only has this led to widespread abuse of this power – with bizarre individualistic interpretations of the regs that cost industry time and money for no safety benefit – but it has led to constant tension between the ‘central office’ of CASA and the ‘regions’.

While good ground has been made through various skirmishes over recent years, this underlying tension between centrally made policy and what happens in the field remains.

This is a management issue that should be addressed now, rather than waiting for the full white paper to inevitably give the go-ahead to sensible management policies.

A failing that has fed this ongoing tension is the lack of central policy development or written procedures that would ‘guide’ CASA delegates in what they must approve. The classic example is how long it takes to get an additional aircraft added to an AOC. Examples are rife in the industry of additional aircraft taking months to be put on the AOC at the pleasure of CASA.

No-one wants to complain openly about this and other issues because they are intimidated by this same power of individuals to make their life uncomfortable.

AAAA has fixed this particular problem with the introduction of Part 137 by gaining a generic grouping that covers both piston and turbine operations in aerial application so long as the company’s ops manual covers the relevant requirements – which the AAAA’s Standard Operations Manual does.

Anyone would think this was ground-breaking stuff if it wasn’t simply removing unnecessary regulation that adds nothing to safety and which is being clung to by some in CASA as one of their last vestiges of individual power. There are plenty of other examples.

The key issue is that CASA management is no different from any other management.

What is required is senior staff with the skills and a fire in the belly for fast improvement, good policy supported by mandatory procedures and a willingness amongst staff to accept that their bidding is the central policy, not what they think is a good idea.

The tail wagging the policy dog should finally be eliminated.

There are plenty of other issues for the government to act on in any white paper. In aerial application this includes better aircraft depreciation rules and fuel tax rebate schemes like our agricultural competitors in the US have.

Pilots should be able to access tertiary education funding (at least HECS) so as to help the pilot shortage.

The current protections for pilots and others through the ATSB’s independence should be maintained. Safety and security requirements for simple operations like aerial application must be kept simple and cheap. Throw in significantly reduced CASA costs.

There are plenty of problems that need fixing in the aviation industry, but an absolute no brainer for the government should be that CASA immediately put its management house in order.

Once that monkey is removed from the back of industry, we will have a fighting chance of meeting the challenges of the future. o Australian Aviation is proud to be the official supporting journal of the Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia. The views in this column are those of the AAAA, and not necessarily Australian Aviation’s.