Senator STERLE: Colleagues, I understand the frustration and I am experiencing it too. But, with the greatest respect, yelling at the officers from the department is not called for. Chair, I think Senator Xenophon, rather than putting the question on notice, should put his questions to the officers now while we have the opportunity.
Hear, hear. But - there was a marked difference between the treatment of the BoM and ASA. In part, perhaps this was due to the BoM being very aware of 'public' comment on their services; if Uncle Bill's BBQ, the local cricket match or someone's wedding is 'rain interrupted', they catch the unfair abuse. Their system for dealing with perceived 'errors' is presented to the committee as mature, functioning and active. Essentially, BoM said that they independently of outside advice checked to make certain that any possible 'error' was investigated, addressed and action taken. Pro active safety management – easy, and off the hook.
The lack of a similar system for ASA seems to have provoked the committee. There appears to be an identified 'fault line'; and, if that fault line had been addressed early in the piece (2000 days ago), then perhaps the heat in the kitchen would have been reduced. A Simple statement to the committee – "
we have identified the fault line and taken the following steps to rectify it" – would have deflected the frustration. The committee could then throw their support behind curing any problem between jurisdictions at government level if required. Had this been presented as proactive safety management instead of the usual 'party line' it would have scored points. But, alas – Hansard tells a very different tale.
The fury and frustration with the agencies concerned is apparent; perhaps 'El Jefe' was OTT, but could that not be excused as being completely "over" listening to another carefully scripted alibi. If you read the Hansard Fawcett, Xenophon and a couple of the others were in just as dangerous a frame of mind as Heff; but played the 'good cop' very well.