Address to Aviation Gathering at Parliament, September 16 2009

Address to Aviation Gathering  at Parliament, September 16 2009

President John Sinclair's speech

"The Honourable Nathan Guy, Ministers and Members of Parliament, Mike Cherrett Deputy High Commissioner for the British High Commission in Wellington, Air Vice Marshall Graham Lintott, invited guest of the AIA and AIA members welcome…

Today is an auspicious day for this industry – the 1000th aircraft, manufactured in New Zealand, rolls off the assembly line at the Pacific Aerospace plant in Hamilton - a matter for significant celebration.

AIA also celebrates its 60th birthday, becoming an incorporated society in September 1949 as the “Aerial Work Operator’ Association” and in December 1951, renamed as the Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand.

We also come together to honour and celebrate Norm Taylor’s contribution to our industry over a 50-year-plus career in aviation and a number of our helicopter pilots who have exemplary safety records. I would also like to acknowledge Amuri Helicopters who join Beck Helicopters, Over the Top Helicopters and Marlborough Helicopters as recipients of our Gold safety award, recognising 15-plus-years of safe operation.

To each one of you to say “well done” really does not reflect the very significant investment each of you has made and continues to make, in your business every day. Over those years, you have dispatched passengers and crew and engaged in often-demanding activities supporting this economy and other New Zealand businesses. To do so without injuring anyone is NO ACCIDENT.

AIA makes these awards so that members of the public can understand and appreciate, in a very transparent way, just what the level of personal investment has been in improving the safety performance of this industry.

Aviation, like all other industries, is facing up to the very challenging business environment we all find ourselves in. Our industry, probably more so than most, understands the cyclical nature of global economies and has learnt that you don’t give up just because the path ahead looks difficult.

We would like to acknowledge the work of the previous government, particularly The Hon Trevor Mallard in his support of the development of Aviation New Zealand. For those of you who don’t know about Aviation New Zealand, it is the international export arm of AIA and is a classic example of the public sector, that is NZTE and the private sector, represented via this Association, working together. For both government and industry, it spreads our risks and creates new jobs and wealth for the New Zealand economy.

If we have a concern, it is about government taking a long-term view of investment in the aviation industry – civil aviation’s future success is integrally linked to two factors:

• a strong, credible and robust air force and

• a strong, credible and robust civil aviation regulatory authority.

Undermine one and our challenge for the future becomes overwhelming. Undermine both and our industry shrinks and dies.

It is therefore really pleasing to see the present government’s Defence white paper and review. Aviation is participating in that review, as we firmly believe there are both increases in effectiveness and thus great efficiencies, from our military and civilian sharing expertise and working together collaboratively.
And this is the essence of our message today - we want to work collaboratively WITH government and build a stronger and more robust CAA. An example where we have worked together was the Agricultural Aircraft Safety Review. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the Honourable Annette King’s work, the leadership of Rick Bettle Chair of CAA, Steve Douglas CAA Director and his team because, without this study into the root cause of agricultural aviation’s alarming accident rate, we would not have seen both practical and attitudinal change within this sector of our Industry. This project is still very much work-in-progress.

In today’s environment, we need more of these studies and on a more frequent basis because these studies can change safety behaviours. These studies demonstrate that our CAA is a global leader in achieving good quality safety outcomes.

Safety regulation is inextricably linked to economic performance –Poor regulation or regulatory inefficiencies can be equally as damaging to businesses as a major accident. In a very practical sense, even though it comes at a cost, having a safety performance, which outranks your competitors, is far cheaper than an accident! The best companies know and practice this in their business every day - and we have acknowledged some of those today.

What is saddening for us is that for our government stakeholders, these concepts are sometimes difficult to accept as they are based upon a very different way of doing business. AIA accordingly, has developed what we are calling the top five most wanted aviation safety initiatives in New Zealand.

Number 1. We want a robust and appropriately resourced CAA. In essence, this is not about government doing more with more, or less with less, but ensuring there is balance as to what government needs to do and what Industry can and should be doing. It’s about working collaboratively as we discuss the very difficult and vexing question of funding the CAA. I have to say that Industry is disappointed that upwards of $5-$7million is being used to relocate CAA when it could have been invested in good high quality research projects and the like, because that saves lives.

Number 2. We Want an integrated government framework which is RISK based. For example, there is a debate over the management of the Canada goose and Black Swan. Both these birds pose severe risk to aviation, but for the hunters they are sport. Our legislative framework addresses this issue in isolation, with hunters’ rights presently prevailing. There are other examples of major and known hazards, which in the regulatory framework, go unaddressed simply because funding for rule making has been rationed over a long and protracted period of time without any apparent concern for the costs this imposes on industry and the lives of NZers. An integrated Govt Framework that was risk-based would help address these issues.

The industry had a so-called “free lesson” with the Hudson River accident. Next time we might not be so lucky.

Number 3. We want an information disclosure regime that recognises and encourages the importance of learning from human error. New Zealand’s legislative framework is punitive, that is, aviation document holders can be imprisoned for strict liability offences where as in Canada there is no imprisonment for similar offences and in the United States the test they apply before taking court action is, “was there any gross negligence?”

Data, in our industry, is a rich source of safety information. Our legislation on the one hand actively promotes reporting of incidences and occurrences, but on the other gives no protection from prosecution. On the one hand we are actively encouraged to self incriminate, but then given no protection – this may be contrasted with more modern legislation such as the Building Act 2004 where protection is afforded and a series of defences are available. The Civil Aviation Act will be twenty years old next year; what might have been appropriate thinking then is now counterproductive to the promotion of aviation safety and debilitating to an industry that must be at the forefront of any “free lessons” because these keep people alive and our industry safe.

Number 4. We want government funding of sectors used to provide critical services at levels that reflect the capital intensity of those sectors. Government has effectively transferred the risk of funding away from itself, the primary user, to the community or provider of the service. This means the industry is struggling in certain sectors.

Two sectors are running pretty much on empty:

• provision of basic pilot training where small to medium enterprises are providing all critical training up to commercial pilot level and being required by government to do so on 2009 costs, but are being rewarded at 2003 funding levels
• The second sector is the Air Ambulance, Air Rescue services where the risk of service provision has been transferred to the community in an environment where community funding is drying up.

Number 5. We want a skills strategy that integrates the demands of the job (increasing technological complexities, and an aging workforce) with appropriate funding levels. Our present skills funding regime has big gaps and this needs to be addressed. For example, there are young people graduating from specialist training schools at the end of the year who, to keep their proficiency, need to be in this industry, but often no jobs exist until they have further experience. It is not always possible to recapture those skills later. Any help in closing this gap would be welcomed.

These are our industry’s five most wanted safety initiatives and we are prepared to work collaboratively and strenuously with all of the stakeholders to ensure they are achieved. Our plea is that these issues be addressed with urgency as uncertainty, inconsistency and inappropriate frameworks cost the lives of New Zealanders and or damage our reputation internationally.

Thank you for coming and thank you for listening to me. My congratulations once again to those who have received safety awards tonight. Your achievements are right up there. Keep up the good work and everyone please enjoy the hospitality afforded."