The Australian Certified UAV Operators Association (ACUO) notes the release of the report ‘Eyes in the Sky’ by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs.
ACUO provisionally backs the six recommendations of the report, but is deeply concerned that the Committee has stepped outside its terms of reference to provide unqualified support for the proposed deregulation of the sub 2kg category of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) as being sought by the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) under its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) 1309OS. ACUO holds that such deregulation will directly increase the scale and nature of the privacy challenge the Eyes in the Sky report seeks to address.
ACUO president Joseph Urli says “We do not believe the Committee has given NPRM 1309OS the level of in-depth consideration required to provide an informed basis for agreeing to such sweeping changes to Australia’s civil aviation regulations. Indeed, by backing the implementation of those regulations the Committee has directly undermined the capacity of each of its specific recommendations on addressing RPAS privacy issues to succeed.
“Deregulation of the sub-2kg category of RPAS will remove the capacity of effectively ensuring that RPAS do not become a widespread privacy nuisance and do not jeopardise the safety of the entire aviation sector. It is the sub-2kg class of systems, operated by hobbyists, which are already the primary source of near miss incidents involving manned aviation, and of emerging privacy complaints. This is the fastest growing segment of RPAS adoption in Australia with the bulk of buyers being consumers, not aviation professionals, and CASA’s efforts to educate this group is incommensurate with the scale of the problem that is emerging.
“NPRM 1309OS was released for public comment after the Committee completed its public consultation processes. Neither the RPAS industry nor the privacy lobby had opportunity to explain to the Committee why NPRM 1309OS poses such a problem in its current form. The Committee backing for NPRM 1309OS comes despite widespread opposition to those specific air safety regulations by entities ranging from ACUO to the Australian Airports Association to the Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia.
“‘Eyes in the Sky’ effectively confuses its important and valuable contribution to the discussion of RPAS and privacy in Australia. We urge the Committee to reconsider its readiness to back NPRM 1309OS in such broad terms without taking the time to consider the necessary evidence.”
To read ACUO’s responses to each of the specific recommendations of the Committee report click here.
Source: Press Release