Of the three core issues;
1. Reversal of APTA approval.
2. CASA declaring my flying school, Melbourne Flight Training an "unauthorized operation"
3. CASA directing my Employer that my continuing employment was no longer tenable based on comments i was making publicly.
This particular post is about point 3.
Page 73, post #1443 of this forum contains the letter sent to the Ombudsman on 19/01/21.
Page 86, post #1711 of this forum contains follow up correspondence.
Below is the response received 23/09/21
Our ref: 2019-713834
Dear Mr Buckley
I refer to your emails below.
In our email to you on 23 December 2020 I noted that
- “one of the only outcomes we could potentially obtain for you would be an apology from CASA and advice that it did not direct APTA to end your employment. I believe this remains true. Please let me know if you are still interested in obtaining a written apology and formal advice from CASA that it did not give a direction to your employer in relation to your continuing employment. I can contact CASA to arrange for this to be done for you if you would like.”
My understanding from our subsequent contact was that you were not interested in receiving an apology if the substance was simply that CASA did not direct APTA to end your employment and if this apology was not published. My understanding is that the intention was to offer you an apology directly. Please let me know if you have changed your mind or we have misunderstood you on this point.
In terms of reports, our Office has not issued any formal reports about this matter. I note that a report would be issued under the Ombudsman’s name. That said, I acknowledge that earlier correspondence we issued to you was referred to as a “phase 1 report”. This was not a formal report, but was rather Mr Buss’ summary of our investigation at that point. The correspondence sought to confirm the matters we had finished examining, noted the matters on which there was broad agreement between our Office and CASA, and indicated the further aspects of the complaint we intended to examine. I apologise if we were not sufficiently clear about how the investigation proceeded from that point.
I am not aware of any specific comments you made that may have compelled CASA’s contact with APTA on 27 August 2019. However, as we have discussed, it does not seem to me that anyone is of the view that this contact was reasonable and appropriate. I note in this regard the outcome of your complaint to the Industry Complaints Commissioner, and the fact that on 29 August 2019 CASA clarified with APTA that it had no issue with your remaining an employee. Additionally, while I acknowledge your long standing view is that CASA’s actions in this case had an improper basis, I did not see a reasonable basis for this view on examining the internal documents we obtained from CASA during the investigation.
I acknowledge you remain dissatisfied by this whole situation. However, I remain of the view that our Office cannot obtain a better outcome for you by further investigating the complaint.
Yours faithfully
Mark
Complaint Resolution Officer
COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN