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If introduced into Australia the Law Reform Commission's S. 75 legislation would virtually destroy the future of our already under-performing manufacturing sector and with it any hope of an indigenous aircraft design and manufacturing industry. Product liability laws of similar ilk in the USA have reduced the once great North American light aircraft industry to a shadow of its former self with nowadays Piper and Mooney being the only GA manufacturers who are producing light aircraft in any numbers. While in 1978 the US industry delivered over 18,000 aircraft, this year it will be again battling to pass the one thousand mark. Almost all of this demise is directly attributable to what is widely considered to be unfair, unethical and often almost comically absurd product liability laws. (Jim Thorn)
Proposed Product Liability Law Analysed
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New Australian Product Liability Rulings Potentially Worse Than Their Us Equivalents
There are many areas of human activity which are freely chosen, but which nevertheless involve some degree of risk to bodily safety.
Driving motor vehicles is the most obvious every day example. As one wants to get involved in more risky pursuits, one can choose to go motor bike riding, or fly in light aircraft, go hang gliding or parachuting, scuba diving, white water rafting, canoeing, mountain climbing, or mucking around in boats in the ocean. All of the people who become involved in those pursuits accept the fact that there is a greater risk of death and injury than there is from spending one’s time on a bowling green.
That risk derives from the nature of the activity, but also because at times the machine that one is using cannot cope with the conditions that it meets. A thundercloud can break up any aircraft. Air turbulence can throw a hang glider onto its back and break it up. A motor bike rider can hit a pothole in the road and destroy his front wheel. A parachutist can become entangled in his lines. A carabiner can snap with the force of a falling mountaineer. A yacht can break up in a storm. A kayak can get caught in a ‘stopper’ wave and, on an everyday level, a car can hit a kangaroo or run off the road and hit a tree.
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