– Steve Hitchen
You might be feeling tremors beneath your feet, or perhaps a disturbance in the force. They're real. If you put your nose to the wind, you should be able to smell what's coming: the ALP government's aviation white paper. Last week I postulated that the report was lazing around the minister's desk, but now I feel it has been taken in hand and will soon see the light of day. Large, politically-potent documents like this are never dumped wholesale; they're preceded by announcements that prepare the ground ahead, such as the Emerging Aviation Technologies Partnership, or promoting a low-carbon liquid fuel industry. Even closing off a long-forgotten inquiry (see below) can be read as tying up loose ends that may inconveniently contradict white paper recommendations. Little tremors that cometh before a big bang. When cometh the big bang is ripe for speculation. Politically, releasing a huge policy paper is often left to the last parliamentary sitting day before a long break. That removes from the opposition the ability to launch ambushes in question time until everyone has cooled down a bit. If that's the strategy, then Thursday 4 July is the most likely day we'll see it. That's a prediction that has little inherent stability; it could come on any sitting day up until then. In fact, it would be better for the aviation community if it came to us on the next sitting day. We've been waiting long enough as it is.
When I received an e-mail notification that the government had finally responded to the senate inquiry into the state of Australia's GA industry, my first thought was filled with jubilation. It had been more than two years since the report was tabled and not a squeak from the government. Silly me; the update was a forward defensive shot that Geoff Boycott would be proud of and no cause for jubilation. To the 12 recommendations, the government said that too much time had elapsed and a response was no longer appropriate. Are you kidding me? The ALP engineered that elapsed time! They deliberately did nothing because the inquiry was self-referred by the Senate Standing Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs and Transport (RRAT) and stood to be a distraction on the inexorable march to another white paper. In October 2022, RRAT chair ALP Senator Glenn Sterle said that the inquiry could not continue until the government responded to the interim report. A touch of chicanery, maybe, given that Senator Sterle at the time was part of that very government. Cards, meet table. This was the inquiry that both sides of government wanted to forget and the wider GA community couldn't be bothered with. Baulked, admittedly, by COVID restrictions, it collected only 74 responses and held only four hearings. That's not enough material to give weight to the 12 very sensible recommendations. The ALP's big gun in the fight to kill the inquiry was that the inquiry was self-referred by the RRAT committee, meaning governments of neither colour asked for it and therefore had no obligation to respond. All that work has been reduced to a single-line response that could be further condensed to simply "go away". However, some of the recommendations may have influenced the white paper, which would be some reward for the efforts of those that did put in.
A changing of the guard at AHIA last week saw Jim Norrie take over as president from Ray Cronin, and Ian Sheffield elected VP, replacing Myles Tomkins. Both Cronin and Tomkins retired, having dragged AHIA into a solid financial position during their tenure. The two also added significant respect and street cred to AHIA as it levitated itself from the wreckage of the defunct Helicopter Association of Australia. My favourite part of the Cronin years was Ray's consistent message that the helicopter industry had to clean its own house and fix its own behavioural problems. That's not the preferred position taken by most aviation associations; blaming the government and the regulator is the usual calls to arms. AHIA has owned the problems and taken the burden of corrective action on their own shoulders. Whilst there are still some spaces where AHIA and CASA don't enjoy harmony, the relationship between the two is constructive, a crucial point in improving safety in an industry that has faced quite a few challenges of late. It is hoped that the Norrie years are just as productive.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch