Election 2016 & Aviation – ‘Beware the Ides of March’.

Oh my giddy Aunt.Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; etc. are all job descriptions, mostly clearly defined, as are accountant, lawyer, camel driver, pilot, engineer; it’s a long, unambiguous list. Some of the more modern job descriptions are a bit ‘fluffy’ – human resources for example, but even the average Proll (abbreviation for Proletariat, the Soviet worker class, used to refer to someone crude, common, or of lower standing.) can nut out what that means. But “Stakeholder Engagement Group Manager” has got me beggared; WTF is it supposed to be and what purpose is it supposed to achieve. Seems to me like the product of some multi handed stropathon, or late night sit down where the lunatics, having raided the banned substances cupboard, have had a meeting to decide what the next prank to be foisted on the unwary will be. Somebody tackle these fools, tie ‘em up and talk sense into their pea sized brain FFS. We don’t need spin, we don’t need glossy sheets full of babble telling how clucking good CASA thinks it is; we definitely do not need to be told how wonderful CASA thinks their system is. We do need some clarity, sanity, legal and procedural fairness as part of a new approach from CASA. A set of rules that work for the safety and protection of not only the public but for industry would be a good start. We do need the fools, charlatans, liars and cheats drummed out of CASA and a few public apologies combined with recompense dished out as a public display of rehabilitation for some of the more disgusting, disgraceful exhibitions we have been forced to watch over the past decade. We do need to see speed of delivery increased to 20th century pace; we do need to be shot of the fiscal impost the current regime brings. We could stand to have a few expert advisors to assist the ‘non airline’ sector with compliance and operational standards. We could also manage very nicely with some probity, capability and reasonableness from the inspectorate. But a bloody “Stakeholder Engagement Group Manager” , if we could ever work out what it is seems to me about as much use as a chocolate fire wall or some of the more notorious, know ‘bad-boys’ getting senior positions and being speakers at well respected ‘aeronautical’ events. “Stakeholder Engagement Group Manager” , FCOL grow up, get rid of the blinkers and FFS get on with job of reforming both CASA and the dreadful, 30 year $300,000,000 cock up known as regulatory reform. Toot (ambles off muttering about bloody fools) Toot.

New England & the Sunfish election stratagem– Bring it on

On the news this AM it would appear that old mate Barnaby has a real fight on his hands against the Bush Baron, Tony Windsor in the seat of New England – Joyce admits underdog status against Windsor. Might this be the perfect storm to enact the Sunfish negative election campaign:

Time gentleman (& Ladies)..time! While still on ( –bugger– ) UP watch, caught a fresh post from the inestimable Sunfish that IMO is perfect to refresh/resurrect this old, but Gold thread… So without further ado, here is Sunny on – ‘Learned Helplessness’.

Wrote: I need to get out more. I’m going to Ausfly where I will try and get a feel for what some other pilots are thinking. What seems to me to be happening to the entire Australian community, including the aviation sector, is succumbing to “learned helplessness” and it is deliberately fostered by a variety of self interested arseholes including parts of the public sector and includes CASA.

“Wikipedia ref: Learned helplessness is a behaviour in which an organism forced to endure aversive, painful or otherwise unpleasant stimuli, becomes unable or unwilling to avoid subsequent encounters with those stimuli, even if they are escapable.”

Presumably, the organism has learned that it cannot control the situation and therefore does not take action to avoid the negative stimulus.

You see it when the politicians tell the public that they must have toll roads because “government must not go into debt” and “the private sector is more efficient”. This is bullshit.

You see it in the daily activities of the Occupational Health and Safety Oxygen thieves. Whole swathes of chemicals are now banned from public use because they are deemed “too dangerous” for the general public to use safely – an example being the wood preservative creosote.

You see it when politicians deem the free health system is deemed “not sustainable” which is code for reducing Gina Rhinehearts tax bill.

I see it at yacht clubs which have an ever expanding costly staff because: “the members can’t/shouldn’t be doing this themselves”. I first used our Fifty ton slipway winch as a Fourteen year old, under instruction of course. Today such practices would probably result in criminal sanctions – the winch was deemed “too dangerous’ despite there not being one accident in Fifty years.

We see it in Aviation where the avoidance of any risk to Government is made into an art form by CASA.

Well folks there is a solution: kick the bastards out of government – both parties and take back your life. Elect independents. Do not elect anyone who has not once held down a proper job – on the tools if inclined to Labor, in business if inclined to Liberal.

Stop electing smarmy lawyers, political staffers like Abott and union apparachiks like Shorten.

Next time and OH & S nazi tells you something is “Unsafe” ask him then show me what the &*^% would you do instead? Watch him jibber and run away.

Next time some prick tells you “we have to sell the Port to have money to fix railway crossings” ask him why the $%^# can’t the government borrow at historically low interest rates and do the job itself? Don’t they understand that privatisation is just theft? FFS take charge of your destiny! Stop with the “learned helplessness”!

If you are a charter operator stop flying politicians around who won’t support your industry. If you meet a politician tell him what is ailing you. Probably the best thing to do would be to start political action aimed at personally doing your best to ensure Warren Truss and similar enemies of aviation and safety won’t get elected ever again. I know this is a negative tactic, but it has worked for at least Twenty years for a certain lobby group in America. We start a fighting fund and use it to contribute to the campaign costs of people standing against those we deem “enemies of safe cheap aviation”.

We ask candidates to agree to pledge to a safe cheap aviation charter. Please note this is not about “parties” it is about the perfectly legal threat of campaigning to keep someone out of office. That way we make ourselves a bigger headache for Governments of both persuasions to the point where it may be a smaller headache to take on and euthanise CASA.

To put that another way; how hard would it be to: (1) Discover which seats are marginal. (2) Work out the value of the seat to the sitting government. (3) Promise to fund a campaign against the sitting governments candidate for that seat at the next election unless the Government acts in our interests, starting with implementing the ForsythReview recommendations?

To put that yet another way; guess how long Mrdak and CASA would last if pilots and engineers were judged by the politicians as having the potential to effect a change of government at the next election? What do we want? An end to the endless regulatory reform and the rotten regulations it produces. NZ style simple, plain english, FAA regulations. Separation of rule writing from enforcement. An end to “strict liability” and the associated constant threat of inadvertently becoming a felon. We want real safety, not just the pretence of it. We want a regulator that fosters aviation. We want the destruction of the public sector gravy train that is sucking the life blood out of aviation.

End of rant.

At end of the day win, lose, or draw for poor old Barnaby & the NATs, there is a common interest here and it is one that an industry like aviation should take advantage of. After all we have got bugger all left to lose & very much to gain, while the current crop of unelected bureaucrats continue to obfuscate any real possibility of reform (i.e. ASRR). Here is some earlier posts on the subject of a common interest between aviation & the bush: [b]Band of brothers – GA & Farmers common interest?[/b] Big issues – Bush businesses. So let’s bring it on I say MTF…P2

Ps Here is an example of what can be achieved when your incumbent ‘Government’ MP is put under the pump from a popular independent:

‏TonyHWindsor Mar 12 InsidersABC My intention to stand in New England was announced on Tamworth ABC radio with kelfuller 30 mins prior to Canberra announcement

TonyHWindsor Mar 12 Political competition payments update : Joyce announces $600000 for bridge in New England …more to come , will keep you informed. View conversation that ensued here: https://twitter.com/TonyHWindsor/status/708843207929364481