SM, Slasher is talking of a time when you were not even a glint in your fathers eye ie before H & S, SMS and all the other alphabet groups came into being.
As for,
bull**** forms - Documentations is at the heart of an SMS.
company spying - It needs to be backed with rigorous compliance monirtoring.
hidden agendas - The safety plan should be known by all.
no bloody reports - Documentations is at the heart of an SMS.
there are some oil companies who are yet to learn the lessons, even your mighty Shell falls short at times.
Safety is achieved by being at times. One operator found that crews were not following SOPs, the solution was a yearly incentive bonus and a annual standards check ride, if any one failed the ride no one received the bonus, thus creating an incentive for all crew members to uphold the SOPs and help each other to do so.
CASA must being having a real challenge introducing SMS with luddite attitudes as these to overcome
The trouble with management is often they put programs such as SMS in place, but without the attendant resources. At Cass 2011, Bob Dodd, retired general manager of group safety at Qantas, commented,
I'm a great believer in outcome regulations as much as possible, and I think the outcomes of the SMS should be regulatory requirement. The problem with detailed regulatory requirement, and in some ways the ICAO documentation is sort of dangerous in that respect, is that it encourages people to simply tick boxes. It encourages a sense that, "if I do all these things I have a good SMS." Well, no you don't. Because it's about how you execute. It's about the culture that is behind the process.
Note he says the outcomes of SMS, not that you have an SMS which may be merely ticking boxes.
Slashers gentleman had an informal SMS, but it was outcome based, and worked. We have/had an oil company would qualify for your luddite tag but because they had never had an accident (many undocumented close calls though) in their near three decades of operation were of the opinion that that they ran a perfect operation.
A hope that now you know better you will mend your ways before there are fatalities.
Coupled with the luddite comment it illustrates the arrogance oft found in management, passing judgement on misunderstood facts. And there are good reasons why elements of CASA are held with derision by some folk.