– Steve Hitchen
CASA safety pledges for pilots and operators are off to a respectable start, which has some people in Canberra pretty chuffed. I am on record as saying I am bewildered about this initiative, but that hasn't stopped others in the aviation community getting on board. I have no objection to that, and anything I say shouldn't be taken as encouragement not to sign. Everyone needs to find their own value in these pledges. And if you scrutinise the signatures on the CASA website, you'll find some very significant names there, which shows people are prepared to back CASA on this. According to CASA, the idea is to show that aviation safety is a shared responsibility, which, being honest, it has always been. But as a professional question-asker, I need to throw up this one: what does it mean if someone elects not to sign? Are we to condemn that person or organisation's attitude towards safety as cavalier? Personally, I don't think so. There are plenty of pilots and operators out there that understand what it takes to make aviation safe, and have it ingrained into their processes and procedures, which often go well above those set by the regulations. Therefore, the uptake of these pledges can't really be used as a barometer of the aviation community's collective attitude towards safety.
News outlet Crikey this week detailed a security incident at Moorabbin Airport on 13 April that involved someone leaping the perimeter fence and running onto the runway. That's a pretty serious incident in anyone's terms, but Moorabbin Airport Corporation (MAC) exacerbated the issue by refusing to communicate with the outlet. I empathise with Crikey; MAC has never responded to any query from me in the past 13 years, except to promise material that never actually came. Although it does me no good, I will acknowledge that MAC has the right to not connect with the media if they don't want to. However, silence and refusal only enhances their reputation as a company that prefers to do business in the dark, which does nothing but generate suspicion and a growing lack of trust. And that's not their tactic for dealing with the media only; aviation companies that make up a large part of their customer base are getting the same treatment. Operators at other metro Class D towers tell similar stories. When lease periods on offer are shrinking and pleas for genuine communication and co-operation are rebuffed, aviation companies have very little reason to place faith in the plans of the airport operators. But I have to think this: if MAC looked upon themselves as the custodian of an airport, they'd be shouting that from the top of the control tower rather than deliberately making mushrooms of the media over every issue.
With less than a week to go to the official opening of the polling booths (and arcing-up the barbies for the democracy sausages), AMROBA Executive Director Ken Cannane has highlighted the discrepancy between the aviation policies trumpeted before each election and the end results. In sum: what they say is not what we get, or if we get what they say, it's no good to us. Whilst Cannane's sphere of expertise is focused on aviation maintenance, his sentiments could be applied to almost every aspect of aviation. When I hear these questions asked, I am immediately transported back to the ALP aviation white paper of 2008, which, as Shadow Transport Minister, Albo pointed out was implemented to the letter. Given that GA in particular is in a very parlous state 17 years later, the value of that white paper has to be reassessed. It is a classic example of policy handed downwards that achieved nothing. Going into this election, we have another white paper in the recent past, which will substitute for ALP policy. Whether or not that paper has integrity above its 2008 cousin is up to each individual to decide. The Coalition, on the other hand, has solved the whole discord issue by saying absolutely nothing to date. I do wonder if they have the same communications strategist as Moorabbin Airport Corporation.
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch