EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1990 No 100
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Transport and Communications
Civil Aviation Act 1988
Civil Aviation Regulations (Amendment)
Subsection 98(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed or matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act and in relation to the safety of air navigation.
Paragraph 98(3)(h) of the Act provides that the power to make regulations provided for in subsection 98(1) includes the power to make regulations empowering the Civil Aviation Authority (the Authority), or an officer authorised by the Authority, to give or issue directions or instructions to all or any of the persons holding licences, permits or certificates under the Act or the regulations, being directions or instructions with respect to matters affecting the safe navigation and operation, or the maintenance, of aircraft, and providing for the manner in which such directions and instructions are to be notified.
Under section 18 of the Act the Authority is required to publish Aeronautical Information Publications (AIPs) and Notices to Airmen (NOTAMS). Pursuant to subsection 18(2) of the Act the AIPs shall include aeronautical information and instructions that, by the Act or the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations) are required to be published and other aeronautical information and instructions that are of a lasting character essential to air navigation.
Subsection 18(3) of the Act provides that NOTAMS should include aeronautical information and instructions that, by the Act or the Regulations, are required to be so published. They also should include aeronautical information and instructions of a temporary character or which cannot be made available quickly enough by publication in AIPs.
At present regulation 159 of the Regulations sets out the procedures to be followed in the event of radio failure. These are operational matters which often need to be changed at short notice. For that reason the amending Regulations provide for the procedures to be notified in AIPs and NOTAMS.
Amending regulation 159 provides that the pilot in command must comply with instructions issued by the Authority in respect of radio failure or failure of radio navigation aid equipment.
Amending regulation 159A provides that the Authority must issue written instructions specifying the procedures to be followed in the event of radio failure or failure of radio navigation aid equipment.
Amending regulation 159B provides that instructions issued by the Authority must be published in the AIPs and NOTAMS.
The amending Regulations commenced on the date of their notification in the Gazette.
S.R. 66/90