One Richard Harold Smith might also cop some of the blame for the current staffing/management crisis.
You may recall that RHS managed to bamboozle Airservices/CASA/Defence senior management into hairbrained airspace 'adjustment' schemes that sapped HUGE amounts of resource across those organisations. Airservices was hit particularly badly with significant staff effort required across the boards in training, planning, attempted implementation of the various schemes.
The so-called 'stable year' pre-and post TAAATS implementation was thrown to hell, not by poor planning, but by the need to fit in the RHS-induced airspace reform imperatives.
If there's one single thing that can be used as a focal point for the current staffing and morale crisis, it's RHS's obsession with airspace reform - and Airservices' managements' attempts to appease that dragon.
Forget the more recent NAS initiatives, as damning and damaging to morale as they were. Go back to the East Coast Class E implementation, the abortive Class G demo, the destruction of FS and implementation of RIS/RAS/ROS/RUS/RES... All of these were implemented in the middle of the single most significant shift in air traffic management Airservices had ever attempted - the implementation of TAAATS.
IF that beast had been allowed to be implemented in accordance with the then carefuly laid out plans, and IF that beast had been allowed to mature properly and unimpeded by peripheral changes over a 3-5 year period as had been planned, staffing morale would have been a lot higher, staff confidence in the machine would have been a lot higher, staff safety consciousness would have been a lot higher, and staff confidence in management would have been a lot higher.
Productivity would have grown, and staff would have felt a lot more comfortable with attempting the vaunted airspace reforms that RHS wanted.
You might also recognise the fact that many of the current management group got their guernseys through volunteering to be part of the RHS airspace reform program - the airspace yes men. In the absence of such a program, the normal management recruitment program might have seen properly skilled personnel moving through the ranks to management, and bringing requisitre knowledge and skills - instead you had young pups gung-ho with enthusiasm, rushing forward to 'help' RHS and his rush-to-glory reform program.
So in a sense, TFN is right - it is a problem that traces its history to former management - BUT it is a problem that should have been recognised immediately he took the reigns, and treated immediately. It is his problem - he should have staunched the wounds and started the repair program back when to took over - I only hope the new CEO is not so blind.