02-09-2025, 10:51 AM
The rot, the waste of time and money, the loss of hundreds of General Aviation flying schools and charter operators and aircraft maintenance businesses can be traced back to 1988.
Transport Minister Gareth Evans put the 1988 Civil Aviation Bill to Parliament to create the independent Commonwealth corporate to administer aviation, thus removing it from his direct control, and most importantly, removing it from his direct responsibility. This body later became the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Opposing the Bill an Opposition spokesman correctly predicted the outcome.
The move away from Ministerial control was a deliberate denial of the Westminster principle of having the major arms of government under Ministerial leadership.
The prediction was that such bodies will inevitably look after themselves, because they are removed from that essential element of direct democratic influence.
In 2009, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese did exactly the same with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. In his reading speech to his Bill he made the extraordinary claim that “safety shouldn’t be subject to politics.” In other words government can be simply given over to some ‘experts’ who will govern their area without the bothersome need of approval from the people of our Nation.
This ridiculous notion, that flies in the face of democracy, is also foolishly embedded in the notion of the Ombudsman concept. And just as Victoria’s longest serving and very shrewd Premier Henry Bolte predicted, Ombudsman offices would cut across the duties of our elected MPs. They too tend to look out for themselves and their Public Service friends.
Transport Minister Gareth Evans put the 1988 Civil Aviation Bill to Parliament to create the independent Commonwealth corporate to administer aviation, thus removing it from his direct control, and most importantly, removing it from his direct responsibility. This body later became the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Opposing the Bill an Opposition spokesman correctly predicted the outcome.
The move away from Ministerial control was a deliberate denial of the Westminster principle of having the major arms of government under Ministerial leadership.
The prediction was that such bodies will inevitably look after themselves, because they are removed from that essential element of direct democratic influence.
In 2009, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese did exactly the same with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. In his reading speech to his Bill he made the extraordinary claim that “safety shouldn’t be subject to politics.” In other words government can be simply given over to some ‘experts’ who will govern their area without the bothersome need of approval from the people of our Nation.
This ridiculous notion, that flies in the face of democracy, is also foolishly embedded in the notion of the Ombudsman concept. And just as Victoria’s longest serving and very shrewd Premier Henry Bolte predicted, Ombudsman offices would cut across the duties of our elected MPs. They too tend to look out for themselves and their Public Service friends.