On 22nd February 2002 the Minister for Transport announced the creation of  a Special Aviation Reform Group, together with its Terms of Reference. See http://airsafety.com.au/sarg/c222sarg1.htm

In fact the Special Aviation Reform Group is concerned only with Airspace Reform.  Its members are Dick Smith, John Forsyth, and Ted Anson.  It has to report to the Minister by 25th March, which means that if we are to have any input, we will have to act fast.

The Terms of Reference empower the Special ARG to consider only two possibilities - a system called LAMP or LLAMPS and another called NAS.  The Minister has not asked the Special ARG to consider the obvious options of leaving our present system in place or precisely copying the USA system, warts and all.  Since Australia is a democracy, we can still lobby for one of those options - but we can't lobby the Special ARG, we'd have to lobby the Minister or Parliament.

AIR SAFETY AUSTRALIA will shortly conduct a member ballot on the question of Airspace Reform.  In preparation for that ballot, we need to ensure that all reasonable options have been considered, and prepare brief "position papers" on each of the options.

If you believe that an additional option should be considered, please write a "position paper" in support of that option and e-mail it to us by 5:00pm on Wednesday 27th February. 

If you are willing and able to write a position paper in support of any of the above 4 options, especially LAMP or LLAMPS, please do so and e-mail it to us by 5:00pm Adelaide time on Wednesday 27th February.

A position paper is intended to persuade members to cast their ballot in favour of the option it supports.  It must be no more than half an A4 page but it may of course contain references to other publications or the Internet.  Position papers in favour of all options will be included with the ballot paper (provided, of course, we receive position papers in favour of all options).

Yours sincerely,