CASA chief John McCormick has responded to industry calls to adopt NZ CAA regulations in an opening address to the Senate Estimates committee.
Several industry bodies have recently advocated using the simpler New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority regulations instead of the current CARs and CASRs that are seen as overly-complex and difficult to interpret.
In his address to the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee (RRAT) in February, McCormick said adopting the NZ rules could not be done without a great deal of difficulty.
"The New Zealand rules could not simply be adopted in their current form as Australian regulations and enforced as such," he told the RRAT.
"Provisions in the New Zealand rules which would need to be enforced as offences under our regulations are not drafted in a manner consistent with Commonwealth drafting standards for framing offences. In addition, some content is not consistent with the definitions, terminology and requirements set out in our Civil Aviation Act and other general and administrative parts of our regulation.
"To adopt certain parts the New Zealand rules could well require a broad reconsideration and revision of the Australian aviation safety legislation in its entirety, including amendments to the Civil Aviation Act, the introduction of non-criminal penalties, the reconstruction and reconsideration of other CASR parts recently made, and other major changes.
"This will be a long-term undertaking, involving several additional years of legislative redrafting and industry consultation."
McCormick also stated that several of the NZ regulations were not consistent with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which CASA tries to comply with.
"Based on information published in their AIP, the New Zealand rules for aircraft operations like Annex 6 contain more ICAO differences than Australia currently registers. CASA is striving to further reduce the number [of] Annex 6 differences in the rewrite of the operation of CASARs.
"Adopting New Zealand rules, at least as regards Annex 6, would appear to result in more ICAO differences than Australia would otherwise have to register if CASA were to proceed with the CASA operational parts currently being finalised."
In concluding the address, McCormick pointed out that some CASR parts contained similar language to the CAA rules, and that CASA was willing to consider beneficial features of the Kiwi legislation "where principles and practices are reflected and New Zealand rules are seen to be useful and advantageous."