The paradigm problem is that the Parliament has effectively abdicated its responsibility to the independent statutory bodies it has created, without the Parliament having adequate processes in place to scrutinise and hold the bodies accountable. These bodies exist because of the Parliament, not the Minister. These bodies do – or are supposed to do - what the Parliament has told them to do, not what the Minister tells them to do.
The Minister is largely meaningless to these bodies - at least in theory. That is a design feature, not a bug.
The very point of independent statutory bodies is that “i” word: Independent. Of politics.
The Minister isn’t responsible; the independent statutory bodies created by the Parliament are, and they are responsible to the Parliament, not the Minister. And if the Parliament is going collectively to continue to accept the stream of self-serving motherhood statements from these bodies, to the effect that everything’s fine and any problems are short-term and under control, nothing will change.
The Robodebt RC revealed why no public official is ever going to go to a Minister and say: “Boss this is broken and it is dangerous…”. On the odd occasion that any public official is silly enough to deliver bad news, it must be in euphemistic terms. Everyone else is culled.
CASA and Airservices have woven aviation safety and air navigation service systems out of the most magnificent fabrics available, of uncommonly fine colours and patterns. Anyone who can’t see that is unusually stupid. Just ask the ATSB.
The most misused word in relation to Parliamentary hearings is “grilling”, unless your dictionary defines that word to mean “being whipped over the wrist with a wet piece of lettuce”. (That’s if officials can be bothered to turn up. The current CASA PMO has been in the position for 2 years, and has yet to front Estimates, despite being asked to. I recall some CASA spin doctor giving some evidence at Estimates in his capacity as an amateur kidney specialist and armchair assessor of operational risks and consequences – demonstrating, once again, that just about anyone can do the job Avmed currently does.)
Ministerial ‘statements of expectation’ are meaningless nonsense. The current one for CASA includes this kind of drivel:
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will adhere to …. relevant legislation when performing its functions and exercising its powers.
Guess what: CASA is already obliged to do that, whether a Minister expects it or not.
I don’t know which would worry me more: That a Minister is so stupid as to believe it’s necessary to express that “expectation” of a statutory authority, that a statutory authority wouldn’t ‘adhere to relevant legislation’ unless the Minister stated an expectation that the statutory authority would, or that the Minister thinks we’re all so stupid as to believe that expressing the expectation makes any difference. (My educated guess is that it’s the latter.)
The current Ministerial Airspace Policy Statement includes meaningless nonsense like this:
The Government is committed to ensuring that appropriate levels of airspace classification and air traffic services are used to protect regional aerodromes served by passenger transport services, with airspace classification and services reflecting the final outcomes of the risk reviews undertaken.
A Ministerial masterstroke. CASA OAR was presumably sitting there planning on using inappropriate levels of airspace classification to protect regional aerodromes served by passenger transport services, with airspace classification not reflecting the final outcomes of risk reviews. But then: Wham! That Ministerial policy hits the desk and CASA OAR changes direction, completely.
Utopia and Hollowmen are documentaries.