From the regions

Cost shifting

Moving around some rural centres we are often brought into a discussion on the increasing coat of doing business in regional Australia. On one hand we have part of the Australian government insisting that some government departments decentralise. For example the
Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Armidale in northern New South Wales.

This is a laudable policy that can only bring positive impacts to the bush. However, on the other hand we have other Australian governments departments charging very high service fees for bureaucrats to travel from Canberra to provide administrative services to our flight training organisations. It can be argued that many of these services can and should be performed by a desktop review and analysis. Two things need to happen. Firstly, a risk based approach should be adopted to determine if and when an onsite visit is actually necessary. Secondly, a review into the exorbitant costs associated a levied against the schools needs to be undertaken. Punishing regional operators for providing these flying training services out of the major centres is simply unfair.