Is it really going to happen? Is the waiting over? Will the report on the senate inquiry into airport and aviation security really be tabled next Thursday? The secretariat of the Senate Standing Committee on Regional and Rural Affairs and Transport (don't worry, I'll use an initialism: RRAT) has assured me that it will, and the time is running out for them to request another extension, so I'm going to pull out my optimism hat and say we will see the report next week. When it comes, it will be nearly two years since the first reporting date lapsed. The senate referred the matter in December 2014 with the report due the following April, but after that came no less than 10 deadline extensions! The RRATs senators must have had a lot to sift through, so we can expect some momentous conclusions next Thursday, right? Well, it's being tabled on the last sitting day of the senate term, so I suspect we might see a dump-and-run, leaving no-one left in the red chamber to answer inconvenient questions.
And it's almost incomprehensible to believe that many submissions to the RRAT inquiry didn't point out the myth and folly behind the Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC) for pilots. The ASIC has been around for a few years, and as far as it relates to pilots, has not increased aviation security to any degree at all. Recommendation 36 in the Forsyth Report, tackled this week by former AMPA President John Hillard, said that an ASIC should be valid only for certain areas of airports with RPT, not the whole airport. The government didn't agree with this, but promised some more consultation. That was never going to produce anything, because there's not much desire in either parliament or the bureaucracy to change. Hillard quotes the BBC TV series Yes, Minister in his article, which is appropriate given the ASIC system is one of Australia's great political shibboleths protected by a self-serving bureaucracy. I can almost hear any suggestion of relaxing ASIC laws being greeted with "That's very brave of you, Minister."
Victorian pilots, don't forget there's a Grand Prix at Albert Park Lake this weekend and two Temporary Restricted Areas have been created especially to make it hard for you to track between Moorabbin and Essendon or anywhere from west to east or the other way around. Make sure you're familiar with AIP SUP H48/17 before you even think about transiting the area.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch