So how come QANTAS can operate
Funny you mention it Sunny, because that is EXACTLY what the CASA personnel said when I first mooted the idea, many years ago.
But to answer your question, QANTAS probably operate under CMT 2. I was moved to a different CASA oversighting team referred to as CMT 3 and headed up a Mr Will Nuttall. So any stakeholder should reasonably expect different CASA policy application.
Having been into the Melbourne Office, the desks for CMT 2 could be up to 10 feet away from CMT 3. My assumption is that the geographical distance between the two teams, could be a major contributing factor as to why an insufficient handover was done between CMT 2 and 3, and that is why Will Nuttall team were so much out of their depth and didn't really understand what was going on.
CASA has a reputation for different policy application between the West and the East of Australia. Maybe that has extended to East facing desks v West facing desks. Kind of like cruising levels I guess. Everyone misses each other.
The fact of the matter is there are no breaches, no safety compromises, just a highly incompetent CMT acting for purposes other than safety or regulatory compliance.