Jethro,
This advance notice has been standard practice for decades.
To be fair, it gives the operator a chance to restore to compliance those things overlooked in internal audits.
If no notice is given, then there is a mountain of minor non conformances like a clean up in a workshop, tooling not segregated, spillover in compartments of screws, etc. that get picked up and a mountain of paperwork generated.
I KNOW that these things should not have to occur but they do, and use up time and resources better allocated to more important issues.
Surveys without notice usually mean that there is something major that is suspected to exist and usually instigated from a confidential report, so CASA EXPECT to find it.
If Qantas gets advance info on a SURPRISE visit, then CASA would become aware of that fact during the visit. If so, then the real issue is who tipped Qantas off and what does CASA do about it?
So was this really a surprise visit, or a planned visit due to the wind down of Avalon.
I think that it was the latter, as it might be construed that with the overhang of job losses may interfere with the flow of compliance with good practice.
(unless there's other info on this)