Aviation industry associations have generally reacted positively to last week's government response to the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (Forsyth) Report, albeit with some expressing a level of reservation.
The response, delivered in parliament last Wednesday by Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss, agreed outright with 20 of the 37 recommendations in the report, agreed in principle with 12, noted four and rejected one.
Most aviation associations have scored the government highly for their response, but there is still an under current of concern that the words may not be translated directly into actions.
The rejected issue, that of transferring the education role of the ATSB to CASA, does not seem to have worried the industry at all.
"The recommendations in the Forsyth paper were far reaching and comprehensive." said Phillip Riess, Director and Past President of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia (AOPA).
"These recommendations will have a major impact on the future direction for aviation in Australia and therefore required measured and considered evaluation.
"Overall a great result, changing the culture within CASA is going to be a major task. The recommendations on how this can be achieved is non specific, in my opinion this is open to interpretation and I did raise this as a concern during my tenure as Specialist Technical Advisor to the panel.
"I guess it will depend on the new [Director of Aviation Safety] and his capability to bring about change and CASA board support, they have the responsibility to bring about change."
Support for the Forsyth response came also from the Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia (AAAA), with CEO Phil Hurst pleased with the overall direction the government seems to be heading.
"The Government’s detailed response to the Forsyth Review is also a very positive statement of intent to both reset the CASA/industry relationship and to bring CASA up to speed as a regulator we can be proud of," he said.
"In particular, AAAA welcomes the government’s commitment to issue a new Statement of Expectations to CASA that will give effect to the recommendations in the Forsyth Report.
"AAAA notes, however, that good policy intentions from the Government must be converted into coherent actions and improvements by CASA."
Not all associations were as enthusiastic about the government's response, with Regional Aviation Association (RAA) Chairman Jim Davis saying his organisation greeted it "with some caveats".
“The ASRR report is the way forward. It is a blueprint to reform CASA and we are pleased to see that the vast majority of the ASRR recommendations have been endorsed by government.
“However, the RAAA has some reservations in that a number of key recommendations were only agreed to in-principle and the Government’s detailed response indicated they may not be actioned. This must not become bureaucratic language for no action on those key items."
Ken Cannane from the Aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Business Association (AMROBA) approached the response cautiously, offering a more tempered analysis.
"After closely studying the response, AMROBA supports what government proposes to do but are concerned that this political response is similar to past governments’ responses to the numerous aviation reviews and enquiries during the past 30 years.
"The government has placed ineffable trust in the CASA Board and CASA DAS Skidmore to take actions as directed by a new Minister’s 'Statement of Expectations'.
"Other recommendations have been left for CASA to consider. Our members are, were and will be looking for more permanent long term solutions that, in AMROBA’s opinion, can only be properly and permanently implemented if the Civil Aviation Act is amended to provide legislative support to many of the changes proposed in the ASRR Report.
"Without a commitment to permanent changes being included in the Civil Aviation Act, our members do not see the cycle of continual aviation reviews and enquiries stopping.
"Notwithstanding, AMROBA is fully committed, as we have done in the past, to working collaboratively with government and CASA to adopt and implement the endorsed recommendations of the ASRR report. In addition, we support the time table for regulatory change contained in the Report so jobs can be created, especially in general aviation."
The full government response is available on the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development website.