[Peetwo]

Please Sir - A GANDER AT THE GAAN??

Ref: 12.1 Supplementary to submission 12 (PDF 461 KB) & Today's NT GA inquiry Public Hearing in pictures.

...You were part of the GAAN report, and I appreciate you can't speak specifically to it. We're going to ask CASA to provide a copy of that report to this committee. Were there recommendations around the regulatory burden that came out of that report? Can we hope to see those sorts of recommendations there?

Mr Hurst : Certainly; there were, from memory, about 10 or 11, or maybe a dozen, recommendations that came with that report. Some of the work that underpinned that final report is already public, because the GAAN made a submission to the inquiry on the future of aviation that the department of infrastructure and transport was running. It certainly covered the issue of CASA. You have to talk about the elephant in the room—that is, a dysfunctional regulator...

...The issue is how long it's going to take and the methodology. We actually think taking that role out of CASA—perhaps giving it to the department with oversight or even using the GAAN, the General Aviation Advisory Network, as a vehicle to do some of this work, at least at the high-level policy and principle end—would probably get us quicker results than we're going to get otherwise.

For now the GAAN report is yet to be tabled...(sigh - )...but perhaps we can make some conclusions from the hinted at GAAN submission to the FAASIP (Future of Australia's Aviation Sector Issues Paper)??

Consistent with its more recent practice, GAAN members have recently completed a Policy Note document outlining a strategic approach to a simplified Classification of Operations, which is linked to the development and implementation of Sector Risk Profiles for different types of general aviation operations. A simplified Classificaton of Operations would deliver greater regulatory efficiency, clarify priorities and enhance safety outcomes, whilst lowering the costs of compliance and barriers to entry.

In addition, GAAN members are currently preparing two further Policy Note documents. One will deal with airspace classification and management, while the other will provide a condensed strategy for the sector's ongoing viability. It is currently anticipated that both documents will be completed towards, or soon after, the end of calendar year 2020.

The GAAN's plan for general aviation has the following ten strategic initiatives:

1. Economic review of the sector to identify its value to the economy, look behind frontline participants to the users of, and demand for, general aviation services and to stimulate investment in fleet renewal and sector expansion;
2. GA's relationship with CASA and others, to address cultural, systemic and practice-based issues;
3. Review of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 to make the law fit-for-purpose, remove irrelevancies, promote international harmonisation, serve as a head of power for ongoing reform, improve CASA's governance and reduce the potential for impediments to innovation and economic harm;
4. Airspace for GA operations, to address equitable airspace access and support for new technologies; and airports and infrastructure facilities and policy to support general aviation flight and ground-based activities for all aspects of the sector;
5. Adoption of a simplified Classification of Operations;
6. Application of Sector Risk Profiles (in conjunction with a simplified Classification of Operations and consistent with the above);
7. Cooperative regulation principles, to leverage industry expertise for shared safety outcomes;
8. Reform of GA-specific parts of the regulatory set, to repair recently­ introduced obligations on industry that have increased costs and complexity in several parts of the GA sector;
9. Improved management of CASA, directed to continuous improvement, quality assurance, complaints handling, engagement and decision making; and
10. Training pathways to assure the ongoing availability of skills and competencies for the sector, by dealing with student support programs, duplication between government agencies, for better outcomes for trainees and reduced cost and complexity for industry.

As the GAAN continues to develop these policy recommendations, it will observe its operating protocols and so report directly to the Minister.

Hmm...in the context of that ToR and given the evidence put forward by the cross industry respected AAAA's CEO Phil Hurst, it is worth remembering that this report, in company with KC's AMROBA submission to the RRAT,  is currently being reviewed by BJ's Office Department minions and will by necessity require a response from BJ well before the next election...

MTF...P2