[Peetwo]

Hansard etc.

Via the APH Hansard team...

See HERE or  Download PDF  

Plus EWH focusses on AAAA Phil Hurst's hearing evidence presented:

 

Change the CASA Culture Now: AAAA
8 September 2021

Australian Aerial Application Assocation (AAAA) CEO Phil Hurst has called for cultural and structural change at CASA, pointed to earlier inquiry recommendations as evidence of the need..

Hurst made the comments yesterday whilst giving evidence to Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport (RRAT) References Committee inquiry into general aviation, which was held via video link.

"We think we've got to reform CASA to make it efficient and regulation general aviation in sensible manner," he said, "and that includes a major independent and cultural review of CASA, a major structural change within CASA to create a general aviation division, and a create an indepdendent industry-based taskforce to rewrite the rulesets that are terribly impacting on GA at the moment.

"It's not just our industry [aerial application] that's struggling with this, the general aviation industry in the United Kingdom has gone down the same path; they've just produced a general aviation roadmap, and interesting in that the issues that have been canvassed and the recommendations are very similar to that which the GAAN [General Aviation Advisory Network] has already done."

Inquiry chair Senator Susan McDonald said she was not convinced review of CASA's culture was the right thing at the moment given that Director of Aviation Safety Pip Spence and CASA Chairman Mark Binskin had only just started in their new roles.

"We have a new DAS and we have a new Chairman of the Board at CASA," she said. "They're a couple of months into the job and I am reluctant to recommend a cultural review of CASA in the same way that Airservices has just gone through or that the aviation regulator in New Zealand has just gone through, because I think the new CEO should be given the opportunity to get out a big broom and sweep away the old cultural approaches and attitudes.

"I think all of the industry is watching carefully to see that that happens."

However, Hurst said he felt CASA needed major reforms, citing several past inquiries that had recommended cultural change at the regulator.

"The new DAS put out a newsletter talking about minimalistic change being required in CASA," he pointed, "and I think it needs to be challenged head-on. CASA is beyond minimalistic change. There have been consistent inquiries and reviews of CASA for decades and the recommendations have been very consistent.

"They go to the heart of reforming CASA and largely have not been implemented."

Hurst went on to state that the UK Civil Aviation Authority had undergone reform to create a general aviation champion within their structure, and that a similar thing in Australia would help the cultural issue in CASA if it focused on simple rules for simple operations.

McDonald said she felt that CASA under the new DAS and Chairman should be given the chance to show they are interested in prioritising the success of the industry over "just claiming safety" on everything.

The RRAT inquiry is scheduled to hold several more public hearings between now and December when the final report is due to be tabled.

   
Next Sandy in reply to the PH proposed ' CASA cultural review' (which by the way I totally agree with as long as it involves a big bloody hose and broom to sweep out the recalcitrant dross still inhabiting Aviation Hearse -   ): 

Cultural change? Excuse me but what the hell does that mean? 

At least there’s a sense that some major change is required now and that patience is running thin. 

Most disappointing that there’s no recognition of the underlying problem which is that there’s been no real political input and CASA has done nothing except look after itself. It will not change by asking it to change it’s ’culture’ which will mean whatever suits to different people. 

The deleterious trajectory our failing GA industry can only be fully corrected by having the whole administration directly under a Minister and kept within a traditional Department. 

The independent corporate regulator is a failed experiment that goes against the Westminster system and representative government. 

Sandy

  

Finally I also want to draw attention (again) to the excellent submission from Edge Aviation's Lorraine MacGillivray with this quote: 

Review HERE & via this week's SBG: https://auntypru.com/sbg-5-09-21-when-yo...oof-beats/

I totally agree with Sandy that this needs political input but I believe at this point, in the political cycle, that input can only come from the Minister via a re-written (with industry input) SOE to redirect Ms Spence to administer real reform (including big hoses and brooms - PICK ME..PICK ME!  ), otherwise industry may as well neck itself while we wait for Wombat's big bang theory to inevitably reoccur (think Lockhart, Monarch and Seaview)...  .

Of course this needs to happen NOW..NOW not 6-12 months down the track, the industry will be dead, buried and cremated by then -  



TICK..TOCK  Senator McDolittle if you don't want be named and shamed as the RRAT Chair that oversaw the last rites of the GA industry, grab the Brahman bull by the hump and get BJ to rewrite the SOE ASAP FDS -     

MTF...P2