I think the Chair was peeved when the committee realised the flight NEVER entered Australian airspace ...
Not quite correct. The airspace above the external territory of Norfolk Island, which includes the territorial sea around that territory, is
Australian airspace and will remain Australian airspace until Norfolk Island secedes, declares war on the mainland and wins, or is granted independence.
I think the Chair was 'peeved' because it appeared that no one in Airservices seemed to understand or be concerned to resolve, quickly, the apparent uncertainty as to who is responsible for ensuring that aircraft inbound to the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island receive adequate and timely information about the weather there.
Given significantly increasing traffic, an increasingly worrisome age demographic of remaining controllers and essentially no new system to replace TAAATS, many inside Airservices are identifying a "perfect storm" between now and when ever AFS/CMATS might be commissioned and then presumably many years after provides a more automated capability than TAAATS.
Indeed. And scary.
Perhaps Ben Sandilands is closer to the mark than many think. Many people outside Airservices would be surprised how "manual" and human centric the ATC system is as Ben tries often in vain to identify. Interestingly as you have suggested many seem to have confused Heffernan's frustration with his usual form, this time I'm not so sure. If you carefully watched the Senate streamed video of that day, there was more than just Heffernan who were shaking their heads!
Again, indeed. I've said it a couple of times and I will say it again: one of the substantial differences between this and other inquiries is that Senator Heffernan is far from being alone in his obvious disbelief, and in some cases contempt, for some the things the Committee is hearing. I think it was very imprudent for some to launch attacks on those who are seeking answers to what seem to be perfectly reasonable questions in the face of what I consider to be untenable positions.
In a strange turn of events, many of Airservices managers' harshest critics are now showing those same managers great sympathy after the Senate bashing. From my perspective just this week has certainly brought forward some very interesting opinions mostly based on 20th century paradigms and seemingly lacking common sense and a core misunderstanding of why the senators were so aghast.
Yeah - I noticed that, too. That's why I'll be very interested to find out who it was that decided shutting down the FSU on Norfolk was a good idea, and what the precise terms are of the arrangement with NZ for the provision of a FIS for that piece of Australian airspace. Perhaps some of the people who've been around for a while in Airservices have some Norfolk-related skeletons in the closet?