Horatio, it's not stupid. Of course I know that we don't live in a perfect world and as we are all made from crooked timber operators will have to be reminded of their responsibilities from time to time.
What I am saying, and Brian Abraham I think, is that if a matter gets so far as to a grounding then CASA should regard that as a FAILURE of its own, in that it failed to detect and correct non compliance at an early stage.
Early detection is much cheaper for all concerned (including the taxpayer) and CASA should be asking itself why Barrier allegedly got so far off course that a grounding was the only option.
However the continual string of groundings and putting various operators severed heads on poles as a warning to others is a bad and expensive method of regulation, and if it is true that CASA is "file stuffing" Barrier with dodgy NCN's as alleged then it makes it even worse.