the nsw rfs have written into there contracts agaist the act that they must report all incidents to them first and then they will decide if they will pass them onto Casa, this is clearly agaist the act. So basically if you report to casa dont tnink your contract will be on going. Classic stand over tatics.
I know nothing of the RFS or aerial firefighting, but as an airline pilot I am just pointing out that it is commonplace for airlines that have a CASA approved Safety Management System in place for any ASIR’s to be submitted to the Company first, and only those reports which are required to be forwarded to the authorities will be (by the Company).
If that is the system in place in the RFS, then it is probably not a breach of the Act, in fact it is normal for many significant AOC holders,
CASA audits the Safety Management System of the AOC holder rather than micro-managing every report. I think this is regarded as something like “self-regulation with oversight” rather than “big brother watching your every move”. I’ve submitted a fair few ASIR’s to my Company over the decades, and they usually respond as to whether they have deemed the report ATSB reportable and have forwarded it accordingly.
If the RFS is not forwarding reports which should be forwarded, then that is a different story, but you haven’t suggested that to be the case.