I try not to comment on things I know absolutely nothing about, but I have to say I find Mr. Russell's comments, if correctly reported by the ABC, distasteful.
To an outsider, certain practices and procedures to do with aircraft design, construction, maintenance, piloting and air traffic control appear archaic and inefficient or both.
To an outsider, these scream out for "modernisation" via the application of the latest management fad of the day or a large helping of computer technology, or both. I was guilty of this myself when very, very, young (thank you for curing me Capt. Kelynack and others).
....And eventually these efforts always fail because they are always based on a faulty appreciation of the core strategic competences required to do the job, or in other words what really matters
It appears to me that a number of institutions in Australia, starting with Airservices and large chunks of Qantas, are suffering from management with this faulty appreciation of what really matters.
I would like to think the situation can be corrected without loss of life, but of course "The Gods Of The Copybook Headings" are sitting patiently waiting to teach us the horrible basic lessons once again.