CASA Director of Aviation Safety Mark Skidmore has told his staff he would prefer to miss the government's deadline on regulatory reform if it meant getting the implementation right.
In an internal memo dated today, Skidmore said that although the Federal Government had given him until the end of 2015 to finish the regulation reform, he was prepared to miss that deadline if it meant the changes would be effective.
"Delivering on the Government’s expectations is vital," Skidmore states in the memo. "Consistent with that obligation, however, it is equally important to get the implementation of changes right. If it takes a little more time to implement successful and effective change, then I support such an approach.
"We are currently holding a round of intensive consultation with the aviation community to get their views on how regulatory change should proceed and how we can best offer support during the change process. From the meetings held to date some views are clear. We are hearing comments such as 'the volume of change is overwhelming' or 'we haven’t had time to comment' and 'we’re too busy managing current changes to provide feedback on proposed future changes'.
"While it is early days, and no decisions on how the regulatory change program will move forward will be made until the consultation is finished and the results analysed, it is clear CASA’s current approach is causing the aviation community significant difficulty.
"We need to finish this listening and discussion exercise before determining the next steps. If this creates some delay in the regulatory development and implementation process, I believe that would be time well spent to get the right outcomes for Australian aviation."
Skidmore cited problems the aviation community had with the new training regulations Parts 61, 141 and 142 and stated that more resources would be allocated to these CASRs to deal with industry issues.
CASR parts still waiting for reform include the general aviation maintenance suite - parts 42, 66 and 145; the passenger transport operations suite - parts 91, 119, 121, 129, 131, 133 and 135; the sport and recreation operations suite - parts 103, 105 and 149; and the aerial work and other operations suite - parts 132 and 138.
Skidmore concluded the memo by acknowledging the need to get the reforms completed quickly.
"Regulatory development will be completed as quickly as is possible and implementation will be undertaken in an orderly and managed way, with a view to maximising safety benefits while minimising unnecessary burden on the aviation community.
"This may take a little longer than originally envisaged, but it is all about getting the right outcomes for the aviation community and the travelling public."