One concern, worthy of some consideration is 'crew attitude' and whether the ATSB has the balls to tackle the subliminal pressures to 'be on schedule', minimise fuel uplift and yet manage to not compromise or embarrass the company. Why did both crews not throw on 'gas for Mum'?.
Spot on.
The constant subtle ( or not so) reminders combined with the extra tasks given to pilots to complete between sign on and push back, combined with a reduction in the perceived authority of the pilots by most people surrounding the operation does have an effect and needs to be looked at. Little things, the pilots car park being 15 minutes walk from the briefing room while security and management staff get the closer parks, although not a problem in itself, is indicative of the attitude towards the work that pilots need to complete in that hour between sign on and pushback. Don't get me wrong, I don't give a rats about walking to the briefing room or who is closer, what I am saying is that there has been a slow degradation in the perception of the importance of the work being carried out to the point where people freely interrupt flight planning without excusing themselves and the pilots have barely enough time to sign on, brief, get through security, prepare the aircraft before ground staff are interrupting that process (just as important) with requests to board. Each time a new task is added to the pre flight phase it gets a fraction tighter, yet this isn't mitigated in any way. Most crews understand this and won't be rushed too much but if you get the wrong combination of Captain and F/O holes start opening up. Most of the time this doesn't combine with poor forecasts, every now and again it will.
To be clear, I'm not commenting on the crews involved at all as I know little of what they did and didn't do that morning,I'm commenting on a broader industry level.