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Under New Management
The election of a new Federal Government complete with a significant mandate for change will hopefully be the breath of fresh air that aviation on every level so desperately needs. Gone in one fell stroke is Laurie Brereton, a minister who made few friends in his secondary portfolio of aviation and transport, and Paul Keating, who as PM, was famous not so much for his self-proclaimed grand vision but rather for creating massive changes in policy at the drop of a hat that usually were announced to industry via the morning’s press. The merging of Australian with Qantas, allowing Air New Zealand free access to Australia’s domestic market, selling half of Qantas to overseas interests, creating two new bureaucracies in place of the CAA, etc. At no time was anybody within aviation even consulted on such grand decisions; rather, it was just another case of ‘like it or lump it’. We hope the new regime will be much more attuned to the needs of aviation and, as we mentioned last issue, there were certainly plenty of reasons to believe that it will be. The former Coalition spokesman for aviation, Senator Warwick Parer, did his homework well in establishing a list of aviation priorities that needed attending to. The new Minister for Transport and Regional Development, John Sharp, should do well if he follows through on Senator Parer’s planned aviation initiatives.
Of critical concern is the continuing acrimonious relationship between some aspects of the operations of CASA and industry. Senator Parer found the working relationship between the CASA people at the coalface to be pretty good with their industry equivalents. The problem is generally with elements of the bureaucracy in Canberra, and it is felt that there will have to be some lateral thinking and good old-fashioned ‘listening to the problems of industry’ by those who have in the past proven themselves as captains of inflexibility. The recent ELT decision is a case in point, claims the Coalition. Why not simply make it compulsory for all new GA aircraft to have a C91 type ELT and leave it up to the individual owner of existing aircraft whether or not they have a fixed or mobile unit? This is what industry clearly wanted, but as you know, it got mandatory C91s. The arguments for and against mobile ELTs have been well aired in AA in the past, though the point is that this was yet another case where many within General Aviation felt that at the end of the day their input and reasoned opinion counted for nothing with the bureaucracy.
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