Explanatory Statement
Civil Aviation Regulations 1988
Exemption — display of lights at night and in poor visibility
Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the Act and in the interests of the safety of air navigation.
Subparagraph 195 (1) of the Civil Aviation Regulations 1988 (CAR 1988) provides that at night and in conditions of poor visibility, the operator and pilot in command of an aircraft must display lights in relation to the aircraft.
The Police Integrity Commission (the Commission) is a law enforcement agency responsible for covet physical surveillance of nominated Commission targets. The Commission has an Air Operator’s Certificate which permits it to carry out covert surveillance operations. Some of these operations require that external lights on the aircraft be turned off. Such operations are not carried out frequently. The exemption will permit the Commission to carry out covert operations without displaying external lights on the aircraft.
To mitigate the risks associated with such operations, conditions have been imposed. These include that the operations must be conducted under the Instrument Flight Rules, external lights must be displayed at the request of Air Traffic Control (ATC). ATC must be advised when external lights are not going to be displayed.
Legislative Instrument Act
Subregulation 308 (4) of CAR 1988 declares an exemption to be a disallowable instrument. Under subparagraph 6 (d) (i) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (the LIA), an instrument is a legislative instrument for section 5 of the LIA if it is declared to be a disallowable instrument under legislation in force before the commencement of the LIA. The exemption is, therefore, a legislative instrument and it is subject to tabling and disallowance in the Parliament under sections 38 and 42 of the LIA.
Consultation
Consultation under section 17 of the LIA has not been undertaken in this case. The instrument is an exemption requested for law enforcement purposes and relates to a particular operator.
The instrument comes into effect on the day after it is registered. It stops having effect at the end of 31 May 2009.
The instrument has been made by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Strategy and Support, a delegate of CASA, in accordance with subregulation 7 (1) of CAR 1988.
[Instrument number CASA EX20/07]