Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak on the Civil Aviation Amendment (CASA Board) Bill 2014. For many, it seems like a logical thing—we are just going to sign off on a couple of board directors—but this is of great value and it is very dear to my heart. Being a representative of a rural electorate, aviation is very important. We have the air ambulance, which is very critical to my electorate. In my electorate, nearly every town has an airstrip that is up to a standard to take the air ambulance. There would be very few electorates that could say that. We also have aviation businesses and maintenance businesses, such as Horsham Aviation Services. Ramair does a lot of air spraying in the horticultural and cotton industry in Tandou, to the north of Mildura. They are telling me that they have been very concerned about the direction CASA have been heading with the regulation burden that has been put on them. Currently there are five directors on the Civil Aviation Safety Authority board and not one of those directors has any flying experience. Whilst we need myriad skills on our board, it is important that we have people who understand aviation, have an affinity with it and can actually fly a plane.

This is an issue that is dear to my heart. I have a pilot's licence. I fly and have a plane. It is a wonderful mode of transport. It is a fairly humble little plane. Just for the record, I bought it before I became a parliamentarian. I did not afford a plane with my parliamentarian wages. I am just making that very clear. There are many people who enjoy both the sport and the necessity for air transport in Australia. In Australia there are 36,900 people with a current pilot's licence, there are more than 15,100 registered aircraft and there are more than 7,700 licensed aircraft maintenance engineers. There are more than 100 air traffic controllers, 330 operators in certified and registered aerodromes, 701 maintenance organisations and 856 holders of air operator certificates.

It is an important part of the landscape. One of the things we are blessed with in Australia is a large land mass with fairly stable weather patterns, which lends itself to aviation. But what we are hearing time and time again is that CASA have been over-regulating the maintenance of private aircraft and over-regulating the medicals. An example of this was brought to me the other day, where a guy who is 65 now has to have a medical certificate every year. The difficulty is that after he fills in the paperwork for his medical certificate it then takes six months to get it back to him. So effectively he has six months without flying. This is to fly a private plane with a maximum of six seats in visual met conditions, in nice clear skies, and the regulation on him just to pass a medical is huge. He is physically fit. If he wanted to drive a school bus with 45 kids on board, he would not have to pass a medical to that level. There needs to be some common sense. There is this perception that just because it is an aircraft it is so much more dangerous.

The thing that we are seeing squashed in Australian aviation is some of the innovation around manufacturing. The aircraft I do have—and I am pretty risky, because I happen to fly the prototype of this aircraft—is from a company called PG Aviation, based in Cowra. They are an Australian company making Australian aircraft. They get an Austrian engine but they essentially design and build the aircraft themselves. They make a high wing and a low wing, and they are a very safe and reliable aircraft. They are actually in the process of negotiating a deal to take the R&D of their business into the manufacturing opportunities in China. CASA has been very difficult to deal with in driving that company with a level of burden and regulation.

We have some great innovative people in Australia. We want to make sure that they can be productive and that they can grab hold of the opportunities that exist in personal aviation and in the broader aviation industry, but we need an attitude within CASA that encourages those people to develop and grow. By simply expanding the board we are going to allow more skill sets, we are going to allow more people who have an affinity with aviation on that board. We are going to take that from five to seven. The total cost is negligible. It is in the vicinity of $160,000 a year, which will be absorbed by CASA's operating budget, so I think that is very good.

We do have an ageing aviation fleet—there is no doubt about that—simply on the back of the withdrawal of production from Cessna and Piper in the mid-1980s on the back of litigation before some common sense came back into the US system. That means that there has to be greater oversight and watching of maintenance. From the feedback I am getting, it appears that that maintenance oversight is at the very point of putting some of our LAMEs out of business—and the pendulum has swung too far.

Very rarely do we hear of a plane dropping out of the air due to a mechanical failure, due to a breakdown of the structure of the aircraft, even in some of our ageing aircraft. Usually it is weather or pilot error. In fact, there is a very strong argument that the aviation industry has been pretty safe. But it is important that CASA realise that you cannot put the same regulation on small general aviation that you have been regular public transport aircraft. We know that they have to have very strict oversight of regular public transport aircraft. That is as it should be. No-one at any point is saying that jets that people are paying money to fly in should not be very well maintained. They must be well maintained. But when you are talking about general aviation—such as four-seater and six-seater aircraft—you cannot expect a person to operate them at the same level of maintenance scheduling as an airline. They simply cannot. People who fly air tractors for spraying cotton cannot do that. The regulatory burden, for really no effect, is stifling some of our small and regional manufacturing and maintenance vehicles.

I want to hark back to the importance of aviation, particularly in our rural areas. In my electorate, for example, Air Ambulance Victoria would use Horsham airport three times a day. I do not think people realise just how important air ambulance is. In the township of Mildura at the moment, if you have a cardiac problem there are not the facilities there to treat you. They will stabilise you and put you on a plane, and take you to Melbourne. Having an effective air ambulance swings on having a regulatory body that has an understanding of the importance of air ambulance in the aviation sector.

I think that this amendment will be the start and broadening the skill set will be first. Having people involved in CASA who have an affinity with the aviation industry and who actually can fly themselves will be welcomed by the general aviation sector. They will then look at replacing the CEO. The CEO, John McCormick, will be finishing up in August, as I understand. Then they will be moving in a forward direction. I hope that this is the first step to restoring confidence for general aviation and I hope this is the first step in restoring confidence for maintenance.

One of the things that I think is not talked about is the great demand we will have for aviation pilots, specifically from the Asian region. There are great training opportunities in Australia. We have the perfect weather for it and Asia's proximity enables people to come over here and do that level of training. Enhancing this field—general aviation and the training sector—by having people on the CASA board who understand aviation will have a long-term effect in attracting people to come and do their studies here.

Currently, I do get a little nervous about some of the trainers. I have been up in a plane myself and had a guy give me a 10-mile out call to tell me that he was 10 miles 'north-south' of Bendigo. And he was not sure what altitude he was at either—and I was a little nervous, I have to say. His English language proficiency did leave a bit to be desired. But I give you an example of how foolish this has become: when I applied for my private plane licence I had to prove to CASA that I had English proficiency. I am a member of the Australian federal parliament and I am an Australian citizen—I have lived here all my life—but I had to prove to CASA that I can actually speak English.

An honourable member: They must have read your Hansard!

They must have read my Hansard. Maybe they have!

The other thing that I think needs to be looked at are the ASIC cards—another regulation which I will touch on.

An honourable member interjecting—

Well, yes, but I am not a good typist, I will give you that! But I can usually string a couple of words together, which is an advantage in this House, I am told.

The other issue, too, is in getting an ASIC card to be able to get access and walk across to my private plane. If I had lived overseas in, say, England I would actually have had to get a police check from Scotland Yard. Some things have just gone to the point of ridiculous for general aviation and we need to swing that pendulum back so that we have manufacturing, good maintenance and good, safe recreational aviation and charter operators. I think we can do it. I think the first step is to expand the skill set of the board. I commend Warren Truss for adopting this, and this is why I support this bill.

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