Government Ignorance or Denial?
As many of you are aware, back in November 2008, I forwarded a letter to the Department of Transport, asking Minister Albanese for answers. Imagine my surprise when I received the anticipated yellow Australian Government envelope in the mail this week!
Quickly running to my desk to find my letter opener, I extracted what I had hoped was a detailed array of explanations for the current appalling state of affairs in general aviation.
Excitement and hope however quickly sank into despair and disgust, as the letter I received held no answers and no relevance to the letter and questions that I had sent.
As we know, Ministers do not write these letters personally, they rely on departmental officials (or in some cases political advisors) to draft them. My letter was apparently handed down to a Ms Karen Gosling, General Manager or Airports, for the Department of Transport, who either drafted a response or handed the task further down the food chain.
The resulting response (included below this article for your reading) is quite possibly one of the greatest change-of-topic responses I have ever received. Failing to address my questions, it quickly informs me that the government has no interest in returning airports to public ownership and operation. Stating that the original purpose, to enhance the scope for investments in aviation infrastructure through private ownership would be the continuing focus of the current government.
Worse still the letter goes on to ensure me that the government has “checks and balances” in place to ensure airport lessee companies (ALCs) do not take undue advantage of their positions. Attempting to assure me that everything is A-OK in private airport operator land.
Karen Gosling goes further in embarrassing herself and the Department of Transport by informing me that the ALCs are subject to the Trade Practices Act of 1974, which is administered by the ACCC. And, that the ACCC has played a regulatory role with regards to airports since 1997.
However, according to the ACCC and their appointed media spokesperson, the ACCC has no monitoring powers over Australia’s secondary airports – full stop.
So who’s telling lies? Or at least, attempting to mislead the general aviation industry?
The letter quickly changes topic again and returns to the importance of the National Aviation Policy Green Paper; proudly informing me that it takes into consideration some 290 submissions from the industry.
Are these guys serious?
Apparently, the Department of Transport, with all its careful analysis and research, is are actually planning on producing a National Aviation Policy Statement, with the intention of steering the commercial and private aviation industry for the next 20 years, based on only 290 industry submissions.
Moving quickly to the letter’s knock-out punch, is the gross statement, that the government understands and recognizes the difficulties faced by a number of general aviation businesses, and small business in particular.
The government for all its understanding and recognition feels that there can be no form of economic protection, such as subsidies for general aviation. Why? It’s not in the broader interests of the industry in improving its long-term viability and competitiveness.
What a crock of absolute government fed, plain, simple and absolute bullshit.
The Australian government can throw $6 billion at the automotive industry; it can also justify throwing billions of dollars at the financial industry and banks to save them from their own greed and poor judgment, but it cant legislate to provide a fair environment for the aviation industry?
What stinks more, is the fact that the current government appears to be covering the mistakes of the previous government with regard to the manner and ways in which these private airport operators behave. Hiding and concealing their bad deeds under a blanket of government green paper, then packaging and feeding it to aviation as the best thing since sliced bread.
Having taken the time to review the National Aviation Policy Green Paper (titled Flight Path to the Future), I cannot find anything in its 209 pages that would suggest that the government has any idea of what general aviation is actually going through.
I would suggest that Minister Albanese, hires himself a light aircraft, and starts working his way around Australia. Actually meeting the people of general aviation and taking time to understand the issue would go a long way in understanding the impact and damage that airport privatization had made to the general aviation industry of Australia.
As for my letter and questions? They still remain unanswered. So, to give the Minister another chance, I have forwarded another letter. Maybe this time, the Minister would be so kind as to answer my questions himself, as originally requested.
End.
Good letter – there are so many more issues too that need organised follow up.
Aminta
As I have often said over the last 10 or so years…..the decline in Australian aviation standards, in regard to services to the community; the troglodyte attitude displayed by government when airports are controlled by monopolistic organisations; and the imbecilic short-sightedness that allow rural services to disappear THUS forcing people onto public roads for transportation, is a disgrace.
And as for Aminta and Ray’s difficulties, here is the example that many predicted as to how small businesses can easily be forced “Off Airport” and into obscurity. And didn’t that occur in Canberra?
Wake up Australia. Where have all the brave aviators gone? Where are the advocates in government for our industry. Maybe they are there but please let’s hear from them.
I despair at the unfairness and lament the carelessness of our representatives who should know better.
If you ever want to see the value of our industry try to remember the pilots’ strike of ’89 and the shutdown of USA airspace after 9/11.
Surely that should grab some attention…………but then there seems to be other agendas.
Naw couldn’t be?
We all need to put more into publicity and creating an awareness of the state of GA and what needs to be done about it.
The sad accident of yesterday has already engendered mis-information by the press. Reports of (shudder) “uncontrolled airspace,” and Bankstown is used by a “thousand planes a day.” As we know, most airspace is uncontrolled, just like on the more dangerous roads. Being the major secondary airport for a large modern city the thousand movements (much of this number being repetitive take-offs and landings), is small beer compared with the traffic flow on any city arterial road.
With the almost complete disinterest by governments over the years we have an industry that has stagnated like no other segment of modern Australian industry. An industry controlled by Air Force inspired regimentation that is totally at odds with normal freedoms and civil enterprise. The closure of other airfields, like Hoxton Park, will of course concentrate traffic at Bankstown. The regulation stifled industry has little chance of creating innovative solutions to traffic management that could easily assist pilots in traffic separation. For example even to remove a cigarette lighter from an aircraft would require a Civil Aviation Safety Authority approved engineering order, let alone install an automatic traffic advisory system. Modern electronics can allow much safer flying, but we need a vibrant and healthy General Aviation industry in which advances can be made.
Ben – I also wrote a letter (followed by a number of follow-up emails when the letter went, for a great time, unanswered). Finally I received a response from the minister that was completely lacking in substance and singularly failed to address ANY SINGLE POINT that I had raised in my correspondence.
That our parliamentary democracy has devolved to concerned citizens being fobbed-off by “hollow” form letters issued by Labor party “lackies” evokes the vision of the response letters getting churned-out, samizdat-style, from the hand-roll printing press of government apathy and irrelevance.
Albanese – consider yourself publicly challenged. Step up or ship the hell out!
As stated, the Minister should go see! It is too late when aviation infrastructure is all gone, when the next generation of pilots have given up before they have even started A lack of suitable training opportunities and even higher costs imposed by a Government hiding behind ‘safety’ when imposing on the industry, but not evenlistening to the real problems, is slowly eroding the future. Why would the new guys even start?
It is sad that two people died in a recent accident – which has made headlines nationwide, but of the 12 people already dead on our Christmas roads we do not know hardly anything about the circumstances. Authorities are quick to jump on this accident – it’s newsworthy, but turn a blind eye to the death of our feeder GA industry. Quit the political spin doctoring and ask the struggling participants what the truth is. Doesn’t sound like the Labor government that stood for the ordinary bloke once upon a time.
Hi Ben – Just so typical of the bureaucracy! They seem to forget that originally they worked for us, the people. It is time that ALL bureaucrats and politicians become accountable for their actions. Spin doctoring should be grounds for dismissal.
When Labor came to office, I also wrote a letter to Minister Albanese, requesting that now he was in the the position to do so…
could We /the GA industry have a meeting with him to forcefully put the problems of GA right to the top.. where it is supposed to count.
Some months later the response was there’d be a meeeting/Aviation Forum, Qantas, Virgin, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, and the Green Paper would address the issues.
As we all now know the Green Paper was to GA, like a sugar pill to a malaria victim… not addressing the issue and no hope of a cure.
And so it goes, decade after decade, Governments wax and wane, Pollies like flocks of their namesakes come and go.
But the soul and business destroying bullshit goes on forever.