EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1988 No. 209
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS
Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations on a wide range of subjects under the Act, including registration, marking and airworthiness of aircraft, grant of specified kinds of permits to perform specified functions in relation to the operation and maintenance of aircraft and aerodromes and issue of directions or instructions to holders of permits under the Act or under the regulations on matters affecting the safe navigation and operation, or maintenance, of aircraft.
The Civil Aviation Regulations (CARs) made under those powers contained a drafting error in regulation 134. Paragraph 134(3)(a) was intended to refer to paragraphs 133(1)(a), (b), (c) and (d), but instead referred to “…paragraphs (1)(a), (b), (c) and (d)…”: that is, to paragraphs within CAR 134 itself.
CAR 134 is an important provision. It enables permission to be given for flights of a type specified in CAR 134(1)
when the use of the aircraft otherwise would not be permitted. The flight types include demonstration of the aircraft, test flights, searches and emergency operations.
The amendment changed CAR 134(3)(a) by substituting reference to paragraphs 133(1)(a), (b), (c) and (d) for the incorrect reference.