The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of Australia is on course to pass all of the country's new aviation safety regulations to the transport minister for approval by the deadline of 31 December, bringing to an end more than a decade of attempts to reform the country's aviation regulations. The objective is to simplify the regulations and harmonise them with International Civil Aviation Organisation requirements, writes Emma Kelly.
Of the 57 parts of the regulations, 27 have now been completed, says John Anderson, Australia's deputy prime minister and transport minister. With the exception of regulations covering sport aviation and enforcement, all the notices of proposed rule making have been issued, Bruce Gemmell, CASA's acting director of aviation safety, told the late September Safeskies conference in Canberra. "This is the point where traditionally we go cold and back away from regulatory reform," says Gemmell, pointing to failed attempts at reform throughout the 1990s.
CASA is planning a transition period, with the maintenance package, for example, to be implemented in late 2004 but giving existing organisations three years to achieve compliance.
The Australian government is also close to calling on parliament to reform CASA, says Anderson. This will see the abolition of the CASA board and introduce increased accountability. It also includes the introduction of a demerit process for minor infringements of aviation regulations, replacing revocation of an operator's licence, which was criticised for being too harsh. The reforms also introduce an appeal process and a voluntary reporting scheme. The latter will be managed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Source: Flight International
