Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO. 67

Statutory Rules 1997 No. 67

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Transport and Regional Development

Civil Aviation Act 1988

Civil Aviation Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 98 (1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the GovernorGeneral may make regulations for the purposes of the Act and in relation to the safety of air navigation.

The Regulations amend regulation 6A of the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations). The amendments of regulation 6A of the Regulations provide for greater administrative flexibility in the issuing of identity cards to persons appointed as "authorised persons" under the Regulations.

Regulation 6A of the Regulations (as it stood before these amendments) provided, among other things, that CASA must issue an identity card to each person appointed as an authorised person under regulation 6 of the Regulations. Regulation 6 provides for CASA to appoint persons to be authorised persons for the purposes of any regulation in which the term "authorised person" occurs. It had become increasingly obvious that the need to issue an identity card to all persons appointed under regulation 6 was administratively unworkable and, in many cases, impracticable. For example, in some cases, it is appropriate for the pilot in command of a class B aircraft to be appointed as an authorised person to issue a maintenance release for the aircraft of which he or she is the pilot in command at the time. There is no good reason why an identity card is necessary in such circumstances. Similar problems arise where licensed aircraft maintenance engineers need to be authorised to issue maintenance releases, and endorsements on maintenance releases, for aircraft. To ensure efficient operations by operators, a large number of people have to be appointed as authorised persons for these purposes.

In most cases, the authorisations under regulation 6 do not relate to, or confer, any policing, surveillance, or invasive, or like function, on the person appointed. In these circumstances, regulation 6A has been amended to provide that, if persons are not in a position where there is a need to produce evidence of their identity or their authority to exercise certain powers or functions under the Regulations, CASA is not required to issue an identity card.

The amendments limit the requirement for the issue of an identity card to persons who are appointed to be an authorised person for the purposes of those regulations where the appointment confers some form of surveillance, policing, invasive or similar function on the appointee.

DETAILS OF THE AMENDMENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

REGULATION 1

This regulation provides that the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations) are amended as set out in the Regulations.

REGULATION 2

This regulation amends regulation 6A of the Regulations to oblige the Authority to issue an identity card to persons appointed to be authorised persons for the specific regulations set out in new subregulation 6A (1). There are also several consequential amendments.

The Regulations commenced on gazettal.