Where I have seen departments lose their regulatory functions by splitting to a new dept, the regulatory mob go over the top with prosecutions in a very short time in my experience. this seems to be the case due to completely losing touch with the industry they are regulating as they get completely caught up in 'process' and lose touch with the outcomes of their actions. just saying thats my experience of 27 yrs public servant. they bite the hand that's feeding them, who then bite and snarl back and so on. So although being a lawmaker, as well as the police for those laws,is dangerous territory we are talking about people...they are better off being in near vicinity in the one organisation and somewhat moderating each others excesses, IMHO.
In regards the act specifically saying they can be sued, I worked for two depts that specifically had individuals /dept could not be sued. The multiple CEOs of bth in 27yrs were just as driven by avoiding being sued /blamed / paying out restitution as casa in my small amt of experience with casa.
The part of the industry I have an interest in is the small business end. .the less than 5 employees, one or two aircraft AOC. The current set up is a ludicrous amount of over regulation. And the time wasting ongoing compliance is a small business killer. Income for Recreational pilots owners to help cover costs is just seen as a complete no go area, which makes no sense to me. Lots of recreational pursuits have small business operators as part of the scene..why not rec or general aviation.
One pax joy flights, the mustering the properties next door stock, nearby property waters checks, the half hour photo jobs......do they really need the production of aoc, ops manual, chief pilot, damp, safety mgt system, exposition (whatever that is), haamc, fatigue mgt plan, all to be reviewed by casa at $165 an hour (min outlay $10,000 and add another $10000 -$15000 if you get someone else to write them).
All sorts of dodgy behind the scenes stuff is being done due to ths over regulation.
A transparent risk management approach and some firm limiting parameters around common tasks would go a long way to reviving a vibrant recreational and gen aviation small business aviation industry IMHO.
The casa project discussion paper on cutting the red tape for joy flight s was a great start in the right direction. Currently its shelved for god only knows how many years. No timeline able to be given from talking to the project mgr. (who sounded harried and overloaded with wrk. My sympathies to him).
Look at any gen aviation business ...they mostly started with one person and one aircraft / enginerr and worked a second job slowly building the business. That is currently not possible IMHO. Shame about that.
Submission from me to the enquiry? The tealeaf reading cynical ex public servant in me says its all about cost cutting the salary bill at casa / atsb. Lots of re structuring ie loss if high end big salary jobs in the offing.