The Federal Labor Government will introduce a suite of new aviation licensing regulations before the end of the year, enhancing aviation safety and continuing to deliver on the recommendations of our Aviation White Paper.
These regulations will cover flight crew licensing, flight training and flight checking and have been finalised after an extensive consultation process conducted by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), including draft regulations being made available for public and industry comment.
The main safety and operational benefits of the new regulations are:
greater alignment with the International Civil Aviation Organization standards and recommended practices;

• strengthening licensing and training requirements for personnel flying passenger services including increased training requirements for co-pilots;


• improved standards for training organisations with a stronger focus on flight activity and aircraft specific competency;


• better alignment with modern vocational education requirements; and


• addressing Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) recommendations through introducing requirements for ratings for low-level flying and additional requirements for night time visual flying.

The new regulations will commence in December this year and will be phased in over the next three to four years, giving industry time to transition to the new safety arrangements.
More people are flying in Australia than ever before, with annually over 56 million domestic and 29 million international passengers.
What is vital for sustaining this growth is the implementation of our highest aviation priority – safety.  That is why on top of regulatory reform, we have provided over four years an additional $90 million to CASA to enhance its surveillance role.
This suite of regulatory reforms had been previously attempted over many decades, but in just four years since the release of Australia’s first Aviation White Paper, this will have finally been achieved.