Senate Inquiry, Hearing Program 4th Nov 2011

[Sarcs]

Back to the report??

Okay after the GBBD and a couple of further distractions we eventually got the inestimable Senator Edwards to help get us all back to the thread and that report!

Senator EDWARDS: Mr McCormick, the report into the Pel-Air crash, with its 26 recommendations, was tabled in the Senate last week. Have you had a meeting with the minister to prepare a preliminary brief as to your response to that?

Mr McCormick: I have not had a meeting with the minister.

Senator EDWARDS: Mr Mrdak?

Mr Mrdak: I have had a discussion with the minister just briefly in relation to it. As I undertook this morning, we are now preparing advice. The department will take the lead on providing advice to the minister on the report, including incorporating the views of the agencies. We are doing that as a matter of urgency.

Senator EDWARDS: Are there any of the 26 recommendations which you, Mr McCormick, are likely to reject?

Mr McCormick: It is a tabled report of parliament and I really cannot go into it at this stage. It is for the minister or the government to formulate a response.

Senator EDWARDS: I take you back to an ATSB report of 1993 into the Monarch Airlines accident in Young. On pages 54 and 57 of that report, the ATSB was critical of the CAA—as it was at the time, now reincarnated as your organisation—for its organisational goals, poor division of responsibilities, poor planning, inadequate resources, ineffective communications, poor control and poor operating procedures. Twenty years later, is it too much of a stretch—or am I putting my chin out too far—to say that, after 23 recommendations of that report, we have not progressed too much in CASA?

Mr McCormick: We have progressed an enormous amount, as I said earlier. The report in 2009, the Pel-Air report or whatever, is an indication of what had happened in the intervening years. I cannot speak too much about what happened in the intervening years and only for a few months of 2009. Having said that, it occurred on my watch. We are a totally different organisation to the one we were then. We do not operate the same way and we do not have the same systems or processes. We are a learning organisation, so we are always on a path of continuous improvement. With Monarch—and I am not familiar with those particular pages—I can guarantee that we have learnt lessons and that we are learning every day, and we are moving forward.

Mr Mrdak: I can certainly indicate my perspective. I know that inquiry very well and the resulting action. CASA is a very different organisation in its regulatory approach and the industry's regulatory approach is quite different to what it was in 1993. Had the practices that were evident in 1993 continued, the Australian aviation industry would not be in the good shape that it is today.

Senator EDWARDS: When do you think the department will be responding to the Senate report?

Mr Mrdak: I undertook this morning to get some advice to the minister within the next week in relation to the initial piece of advice. That is the approach. I cannot comment on when the government will respond to the report, but I think, as I acknowledged to the committee this morning, the minister certainly understands the urgency of responding to the report.

Senator EDWARDS: Aviation safety and its culture cannot wait. Thanks.

Mr Mrdak: I undertook that this morning and the government will respond in a very timely way, I believe.

And this is what Mr Mrdak undertook in the morning:

Senator FAWCETT: Mr Mrdak, I want to come to the issue of the process of the department to respond to reports of the Senate. You would be aware that a report was tabled into a couple of areas of your responsibility last week. In accordance with various decisions of the Senate the minister has three months to respond. That three-month period will fall right in the middle of the caretaker period, which means that significant safety issues could potentially be stretched out beyond four or five months before resolution, which is unacceptable. Could you tell the committee what your plan is to make sure that those issues are addressed in a timely manner, given the overlapping of significant time frames?

Mr Mrdak: We are certainly aware of the serious issues raised by the committee's report that was tabled last week in the Senate. The minister has sought urgent advice from agencies in relation to the matters raised by the Senate committee. We are now in the process of providing that advice to the minister. The minister certainly does recognise the need to urgently review and address the recommendations. I am not in a position here today to give you an exact time frame as to when the minister and the government will formally respond to the report but I think we all are very conscious of the fact that with the date of the federal election being proposed for 14 September and caretaker mode notionally starting on around 12 August that would fall within the normal three-month period. I can only say to you that the government is giving this serious and urgent consideration and looking to expedite its response as best it can.

Senator FAWCETT: I accept that you cannot speak for the minister and when he will release his response but can you give the committee an undertaking that the department's response to the minister will occur in sufficient time so that he can respond before the caretaker mode?

Mr Mrdak: Certainly that would be our intention. As I said, the minister has sought advice. In preliminary discussions with him on the issues involved he has sought that advice as a matter of urgency and we are doing that now, along with our portfolio agencies.

Senator HEFFERNAN: It weighed heavily on the minds of all members of the committee—and you will note it was a unanimous report—that we address the issues raised in the way we have. We absolutely wanted to be open and honest in that report and we did not want to have even the slightest prospect that in future there could be a calamity which would come back to haunt our conscience.

Mr Mrdak: I appreciate that, Senator, and the department is as a matter of urgency preparing advice for the government to consider on the issues raised.

Senator IAN MACDONALD: Mr Mrdak, I appreciate that you cannot with accuracy indicate when your advice will be ready, but you would have some idea of when you might be in a position to submit advice to the minister. Is it likely to take a day, a week, a month?

Mr Mrdak: We already have officers in the department—and clearly me and senior officers—who have carefully read the report now. I have had discussions with my senior officers. We envisage being in a position to provide some initial advice to the minister, I expect, certainly within the next week to 10 days in relation to it. We have been through the process of the budget and now estimates. I envisage having conversations with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority CEO and the head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau in the coming days to ascertain their views, to enable me to provide a comprehensive view to the minister, I would hope by the end of next week.

Senator IAN MACDONALD: Thank you for that. Senator Thistlethwaite, as the minister representing the minister, can you give any indication of what timing the minister might adopt in relation to this important report and the government's response to it?

Senator Thistlethwaite: I cannot give you an indication now, Senator, but I can take that on notice and see if we can come back to you before the end of the day.

Senator IAN MACDONALD: That would be great, thank you.

So I guess its…“standby VH-NGA”... "NGA say again?"...“standby VH-NGA”...

Doin a Kelpie….