More than two years after the interim report was tabled, the Federal Government yesterday offered a dead-bat response to the senate inquiry into the GA industry.
Tabled in March 2022, the report made 12 recommendations, but the Morrison government did not respond to the self-referred senate inquiry before it was dumped from power in May that year.
The Federal Government has responded to each of the recommendations with the same line: "The Government notes this recommendation. However, given the passage of time since this report was tabled, a substantive Government response is no longer appropriate."
As the inquiry was self-referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport (RRAT) and not commissioned by the government of the day, the government was under no obligation to respond to the interim report.
The inquiry, which began in December 2019, was originally scheduled to table the final report on the last parliamentary sitting day of November 2021, but the deadline was extended to March 2022 and then to October 2022.
After the 2022 Federal Election, all current inquiries lapsed, and the GA industry inquiry was not re-referred to the RRAT committee.
The key driving force behind the inquiry, RRAT chair and QLD Nationals senator Susan McDonald became Shadow Minister for Resources and for Northern Australia, handing the RRAT chair to Labor senator Glenn Sterle from WA.
Senate firebrand and GA supporter Rex Patrick poured a lot of energy into the inquiry, but was voted out of the red chamber during the Federal Election, robbing the inquiry of perhaps its key proponent.
Senator Sterle told Australian Flying in October 2022 that no comment on the inquiry would be possible until the ALP government had responded to the interim report.
Created to examine the impact of aviation safety regulation on the GA industry, the senate inquiry struggled to collect evidence under coronavirus restrictions, gathering only 74 submissions and holding only four public hearings over the 28 months it was active.