CASA to press ahead with recognition of foreign licenses despite 75% negative feedback
Dear Members,
The ALAEA met with CASA on 15 October 2025, alongside the ACTU and AMWU to discuss CASA’s plan to fast-track recognition of certain foreign LAME licenses. CASA advised that they intend to proceed with the changes despite indicating that roughly 75% of their own consultation feedback opposed the proposal. They also stated they view training in the USA, the UK and Singapore as equivalent to Australia. We disagree with that assessment and we are concerned that treating non-equivalent schemes as automatic equivalents risks eroding Australia’s safety standards and weakening the pipeline for AMEs to progress to LAME roles. CASA further indicated they do not consider dilution of skills and competencies to be a safety issue; we fundamentally disagree.
The ALAEA supports fair and robust pathways for experienced overseas engineers. Those pathways already exist through case-by-case assessment and gap-training with regulator oversight, and they allow legitimate entrants to work here safely without lowering the bar. We believe the real issue is the lack of adequate employer investment in domestic training and progression, and that should be addressed directly rather than by changing licensing recognition settings.
CASA has committed to share data with us during implementation and to review the position in 12 months. In the meantime, we remain gravely concerned about the safety risks inherent in pressing ahead in this manner. The joint ACTU/ALAEA/AMWU/AWU survey confirms the industries concerns about recognising licensing schemes of a lower standard than Australia’s; please refer to the attached “LAME Survey Outcomes” for detail.
Please read the attachment, share this update with your peers, and report any safety or competency concerns you observe through your company’s reporting system and to the ALAEA so we can escalate patterns quickly.
We will provide further guidance, including potential regulatory and parliamentary engagement, once CASA provides its data and implementation detail.
In Unity,
Glynn Sowter
General Manager
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