[Peetwo]

Australia again obfuscates ICAO GANP/GASP -

Minister_NFI_Chester once again defers to the MOAS and the self-serving, self-preserving bureaucracy, with the signing of the NATM (national air traffic management) plan...   
(Warning: Bucket will be required) 

National Air Traffic Management Plan released
Media Release
DC217/2017
21 July 2017

• Plan sets out Australia's key air traffic management (ATM) challenges, priorities, initiatives and governance arrangements
  
• Supports the Government's decision to establish a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) test-bed project.
  

The national Air Traffic Management plan provides guidance to Australia's aviation agencies and industry on how Australia's ATM system will respond to the air traffic challenges.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester welcomed today's release of the plan and said it would provide a blueprint for future initiatives that would continue Australia's strong aviation safety record.

“The plan recognises that air traffic management is advancing in technology and Australia will be implementing a state of the art, national ATM system,” Mr Chester said.

Mr Chester said the plan supports the Australian Government's recent decision to invest in the Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) test-bed project.

“SBAS has potential application in all transport industry sectors across Australia,” Mr Chester said. “In aviation, SBAS can be used to increase the accuracy of aircraft and air traffic management operations providing potential safety, efficiency and environmental benefits in capital city and regional locations.

“The new ATM Plan complements Australia's updated State Safety Programme released in 2016 by outlining priorities and initiatives which will not only enhance aviation safety but also improve aircraft efficiency, capacity, and environmental performance.

“In finalising the plan, we have taken into account agency and industry feedback.

“The plan is also consistent with the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) Global Air Navigation Plan and the Global Aviation Safety Plan—the two key international planning documents for aviation.”

The plan is available online at: https://infrastructure.gov.au/aviation/a...ement_plan

Coupled with the usual M&M motherhood ("puke" ) statements and weasel words there is hidden some much bigger issues, that the moribund minister in his ignorance and rush to preserve his own shiny bum, should be made aware of.

“The new ATM Plan complements Australia's updated State Safety Programme released in 2016 by outlining priorities and initiatives which will not only enhance aviation safety but also improve aircraft efficiency, capacity, and environmental performance..."

Throughout the pages of this thread it has been highlighted many times that M&M's SSP is nothing more than a word weasel confection, that serves little purpose other than to placate ICAO and promote the fictional idea that Australia is warmly embracing the GASP and the principles of ICAO Annex 19.

Much like the lip service we pay to the ICAO SARPs (with at one time over 400 notified differences), our compliance/adherence to the principles of Annex 19 is laughable when you begin to review how many significant safety issues or applicable AAI reports are not being reported or forwarded via the ICAO ADREP/ECCAIRS system (more on this with 'evidence based' facts in due course - .

However the importance of the latest government released NATM plan should not be lost by the miniscule acceding oversight of the ATM plan to M&M and his minions.

Quotes from Joseph Wheeler, via the Drone Wars Inquiry BrisVegas hearing: 

Mr Wheeler : ...Fourthly, I would urge the committee to recommend as a minimum that CASA be charged in an appropriately binding way to prioritise the resolution of the drone legislative challenge. I suggest before the next 2018 update by the minister of Australia's airspace policy statement that that be done. This legislative policy statement is a reflection of our priorities and commitments on airspace management as a member of the international aviation community. Section 11A of the Civil Aviation Act requires CASA to exercise its powers consistent with that statement. The latest iteration was made after the consultation for the September rollbacks on CASA part 101, relaxing drone laws, but does not reflect any prioritisation of integrating unmanned aircraft systems safely or sustainably into Australian airspace.

I would suggest that this is where Mr Carmody's recent commitment—made in a comment to a newspaper a few days ago—'to make drone users part of the wider aviation community' should be recorded. Right now the statement says as its first government policy objective:

The Government considers the safety of passenger transport services as the first priority in airspace administration and CASA should respond quickly to emerging changes in risk levels for passenger transport operations.

Whether or not that policy has changed, I strongly believe that that commitment to the safety of fare-paying passengers in this country needs to be demonstrated strongly through tighter laws regulating drones, which represent the quintessential emerging change in risk levels for air travel in Australia.

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Mr Wheeler : Yes. I would say that is correct. I think it portrays a fact that this needs to be something that is beyond CASA's remit. CASA will always argue that their functions are set out in this act—the Civil Aviation Act—narrowly defined and that they are headed pre-eminently by safety. It is all well and good, but, as we have just discussed, this traverses more areas than safety and requires the thoughts of other people and some government direction, which is lacking at this time. That is also why I mention the Australia Airspace Policy Statement, which CASA has to be directed by. It is one of the means by which the government can say, 'This is what you need to do. This is our government policy objective. You need to assist us with fulfilling it.

     
Opportunity again missed by this government and this inept NFI miniscule to read CASA the riot act...
MTF...P2