Mainframe
If you review my comments on this forum, you will find that I’ve criticised CASA when I think it deserves criticism, and I defend it when I think it deserves defending.
If there’s fire, let’s get it exposed and extinguised. However, and to extend the conflagrational metaphor, there are lots of hoax callers out there, and many fire bugs are members of the fire brigade.
There is a regulator for the regulator. There’s the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Federal Police, the AAT, the Federal Court, your local member, your Senators, Parliamentary committees the Minister, the Prime Minister ….
Your point about resources is a fair one. However, each of the institutions/mechanisms set out above includes provisions for waiving of fees/hardship etc. A complaint to the ombudsman costs nothing, and can be made over the telephone. Indeed, I think the last time I chatted with the person who is now the ombudsman he was investigating a complaint against someone in the Townsville office, part of which complaint he agreed with.
The way it works in our society is that if you can’t convince one or more of them that someone’s done something wrong, or that something should be changed, then that’s it: game over.
Stink
I suggest you start here:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/aat/ with a search of the term “CASA”. I commend in particular this matter:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/c.../1999/329.html which refutes your point about the “latex glove treatment” compared with other operators.
I agree with your point about “the industry not working together”, but disagree with your suggested cause. The feud in the area to which you refer just happens to be exacerbated because relatives of the Hatfields and the McCoys have at various time been employed by the regulator.
LRT
I am not quite sure I understand your question. There are exclusions from the obligation to disclose information under FOI. There are no exclusions (other than legal privilege) from discovery if you get into litigation, for example, if you make a claim that you are being or were denied natural justice in a CASA decision. But people often use the term "natural justice" without understanding what it actually means.