First of all, for those thirsting for revenge, you aren't going to get it. Get used to that idea and move on with your lives, Dump the bitterness, it is bad for your health. You will not get any recognition. You will not be vindicated.
Understand that there is no justice in this world and your tormentors are going to retire on fat pensions to their beach houses and play golf every day.
I know you all find that message hard to stomach, but unfortunately it's the way of the world, so don't shoot the messenger.
To put that another way, I'm sure your experience mirrors that of all those children raped by Catholic Priests, and your chances of "justice" are as bad as theirs, as anyone who heard Cardinal Pells oily testimony yesterday would understand. Even if CASA Flight Operations Inspectors were caught red handed falsifying evidence while buggering each other you aren't going to get an apology from the Minister, it was all in the interests of safety you see, misplaced zeal and all that.
Do I make myself clear? You will never be vindicated.
Now back to the problem which, as they say in the classics, is "multi faceted"...............
We cannot simply "stop" CASA and start again. There are vital functions that CASA performs that need to keep happening, come what may, otherwise the general public will become alarmed.
The Australian regulatory framework and the regulations themselves are a total mess, deliberately designed that way to increase the power of the regulator while shielding it from accountability. A simple attempt at reading some of them and comparing them with other jurisdictions proves it.
The CASA corporate culture is totally and utterly putrid, corrupt and self serving if allegations are to be believed. Concepts of natural justice, procedural fairness and equity are honoured in the breach every day.
The organisation is bloated and dysfunctional and its corporate strategy is rotten in conception and execution at all levels.
The organisation heamorrhages technical expertise and experience. It is technically very weak.
The Regulator and ATSB have lost what trust the industry ever had in it. Please note that I mean the GA industry. The major airlines are a law unto themselves because CASA hasn't he technical ability to even understand their operation let alone police them.
I think that summarises the state of the organisation if posters here are to be believed.
Lets look at environmental factors:
- We are about Three months from a Federal election.
- The general public have no interest in, or understanding of, the matter.
- There is an extremely limited pool of available technical and operational aviation expertise in Australia. The industry is small and incestuous - which invites the creation of vendettas, armed camps of true believers and other nasty games.
- the industry is highly fragmented and the fragile ego syndrome associated with pilots means that coordinated action is virtually impossible.
- the cost and revenue structure of GA operations invites "get rich quick" players.
The available options for the Government at this time are:
- Do nothing and leave the matter for the next government to attempt to address. Given the Ministers lack of enthusiasm for this part of his portfolio, this is the most likely scenario in my opinion. I would expect CASA and ATSB would share this view.
- Embark on cosmetic reform now. I view this as unlikely unless the Department, CASA and ATSB believe that it can be executed without any cost in terms of the current Ministers time and that it would satisfy / mollify a new Minister in an Abbott Government.
This may be an attractive option if Mr. Mrdak believes that Abbott can be successfully encouraged to appoint a new Minister with no Aviation experience or interest. I suspect that Sen. Fawcett would be lobbyed against preceisely because he DOES have aviation knowledge and could thus be in a position to make waves and other unpleasantness for a new government.
- Embark on real reform now. This is unlikely because a new Minister will want to be part of this process and in any case I believe Mr Mrdak would be in quasi caretaker mode by now anyway.
So that why I'm saying sit back and keep taking it up the arse from CASA boys. Nothing is going to change before the election. Most probably nothing is going to change after it either. Its just a continuation fo BOHICA. All you will do is mark yourself for more "attention" from CASA if you stamp your pretty little foot.
Real reform, if it comes, can only involve the adoption of the NZ/FAA regulations. The Australian ones are totally broken. The Act needs rewriting to ensure that the "fostering industry development" mantra is included and stop the organisation achieiving its safety goal by preventing aviation.
Furthermore, it is most likely that American or other foreign management expertise will be needed to mange the process.
It is going to be necessary to break up CASA into Two parts separating regulation and enforcement.
The existing CASA workforce is going to have to be made to apply for new jobs in the new organisations in the hope that the middle management culture can be destroyed and its acolytes pensioned off with big payouts
So that is my take folks. Jumping up and down and howling for justice is going to get you nowhere just now, it may never get you anywhere because the Abbott government will have more on its plate than little CASA. Your best hope is that a junior in PM & C decides to fix CASA up as a weekend project and write it up as a case study for her corporate stratey class when she does her MBA.