Doing a CASA, or Fantasy mirroring reality?
The war didn’t last that long, our allies eventually turned up to save us.
The navy was all sunk in the first three days of the war and all that was left to defend our coast was lots of small boats and pleasure craft many of which required boat ramps from which to launch to fulfill their “Dunkirk” moment. The panicked government nationalised existing boat ramps and initiated a frantic building program to construct more.
With wars end the government found itself owning lots of boat ramps and ports and the cost of maintaining them was adding up.
The big ports were not such a problem as large commercial shipping utilised them, generating huge cash flows making them very attractive assets to sell off the big banks or foreign capitalists to make huge tax-free profits.
The smaller ports and multiple boat ramps, once considered vital national assets, were a problem however. Nobody seemed to want responsibility for them as they were only used by recreational boat people and small commercial operators and cost a lot of money to maintain.
They were however very valuable as real Estate, prime riverfront/harbourside land ripe for development, the only impediment was the pesky boaties who used them.
It wasn’t until a devious Murky Mandarin had an epiphany during an extended lunch with his minister one day.
“Eureka minister” he shrieked “I have the answer, we could do a CASA”.
“Please explain” the minister replied drolly.
“Do you remember how we got rid of all those pesky aviation people so we could unload all those secondary airports to development sharks. We could do the same with boats”.
The Mandarin explained excitedly
“My god! we could probably get away with it for national parks as well”
his brain singing as it considered the possibilities.
“I fail to see your reasoning” the minister replied.
The Mandarin rolled his eyes and thought;
“Daft prick, its true, he really is the village idiot”
He explained;
“ Minister leave it all to me, we will need to follow the CASA protocols. Get the press to blow up any and all the boating incidents and accidents to convince the public that boating has become very dangerous and must be federally regulated.
We then form an Independent Statutory Authority to regulate boating, that makes sure you are not responsible for anything they do, then let them loose.
I guarantee within a few years boating will be so bound up with compliance issues that it will be too expensive to float a rubber duck in the bath”
“ Good grief, I see what your getting at Murky, hundreds more bureaucrats into my portfolio” said the minister dollar signs in his eyes “And think of the political donations. We made a poultice out of the airports, I want a plan for cabinet by next week”
‘Yes Minister” Murky replied trying very hard to supress the smirk spreading across his face.
The war didn’t last that long, our allies eventually turned up to save us.
The navy was all sunk in the first three days of the war and all that was left to defend our coast was lots of small boats and pleasure craft many of which required boat ramps from which to launch to fulfill their “Dunkirk” moment. The panicked government nationalised existing boat ramps and initiated a frantic building program to construct more.
With wars end the government found itself owning lots of boat ramps and ports and the cost of maintaining them was adding up.
The big ports were not such a problem as large commercial shipping utilised them, generating huge cash flows making them very attractive assets to sell off the big banks or foreign capitalists to make huge tax-free profits.
The smaller ports and multiple boat ramps, once considered vital national assets, were a problem however. Nobody seemed to want responsibility for them as they were only used by recreational boat people and small commercial operators and cost a lot of money to maintain.
They were however very valuable as real Estate, prime riverfront/harbourside land ripe for development, the only impediment was the pesky boaties who used them.
It wasn’t until a devious Murky Mandarin had an epiphany during an extended lunch with his minister one day.
“Eureka minister” he shrieked “I have the answer, we could do a CASA”.
“Please explain” the minister replied drolly.
“Do you remember how we got rid of all those pesky aviation people so we could unload all those secondary airports to development sharks. We could do the same with boats”.
The Mandarin explained excitedly
“My god! we could probably get away with it for national parks as well”
his brain singing as it considered the possibilities.
“I fail to see your reasoning” the minister replied.
The Mandarin rolled his eyes and thought;
“Daft prick, its true, he really is the village idiot”
He explained;
“ Minister leave it all to me, we will need to follow the CASA protocols. Get the press to blow up any and all the boating incidents and accidents to convince the public that boating has become very dangerous and must be federally regulated.
We then form an Independent Statutory Authority to regulate boating, that makes sure you are not responsible for anything they do, then let them loose.
I guarantee within a few years boating will be so bound up with compliance issues that it will be too expensive to float a rubber duck in the bath”
“ Good grief, I see what your getting at Murky, hundreds more bureaucrats into my portfolio” said the minister dollar signs in his eyes “And think of the political donations. We made a poultice out of the airports, I want a plan for cabinet by next week”
‘Yes Minister” Murky replied trying very hard to supress the smirk spreading across his face.