The Australian government has combined the General Aviation Action Agenda, which was designed to address the problems specifically facing the country's GA industry, into the broader aviation White Paper process.
The former government launched the GA Action Agenda in 2006. Action agendas are government initiatives whereby the government and a specific industry work together to foster industry leadership, help the industry develop strategies for growth, agree on priorities and make commitments for change. The process has been successfully applied to a number of industries, including an earlier one involving the aerospace industry that resulted in 16 recommendations designed to enable the industry to meet its export potential.
GA was identified as a suitable sector for an action agenda as the industry has been on the decline in Australia, with investment in GA aircraft and flying hours down and the country's GA fleet ageing. Rising costs, lack of government policy, over-regulation and lack of financial incentives to encourage investment in new aircraft have all been cited by the industry as contributing towards the downward cycle.
Last year a Strategic Industry Leaders Group, comprising senior members of the GA industry, was appointed by the former government to lead the process. The group submitted its report to government earlier this year, coinciding with the new government launching an aviation issues paper for comment in April in the first step towards developing the country's first-ever national aviation policy.
A detailed White Paper is scheduled to be released in mid-2009. "Given the development of the aviation White Paper, the issues and recommendations in the action agenda report will be considered as part of the development of the broader White Paper," says the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.
Col Rodgers, president of AOPA, who was also a member of the Strategic Industry Leaders Group, says there was consensus in the main problems affecting the GA industry, with a need to reverse the former government policy of privatising airports at the top of the agenda. He adds that the industry hopes its concerns will be heard in the White Paper process.
Source: Flight International
