Dear Minister,
Re: 'Where the bloody hell are you?'
[YOUTUBE]
So Where the Bloody Hell are you? - YouTube
Note for the Minister & some reminders while your swanning around pretending to give a rat's while in the acting PM position.
Being as we are into the 2nd week of '14 & the Turkey has well and truly passed through the local turd burglar farm, here's a basic summary of your performance c/o of the IOS
1) Official change of government you missed the perfect excuse (& god knows after the PelAir debacle who would have blamed you..
) that some of your Ministerial colleagues & TA partook in i.e. the post election bureaucrat be-headings (dubbed get a Head Crat day
).
(2) However you did announce your promise of a independent review of the RRP (i.e.ASRR), but the TORs and the no parliamentary protection has left that initiative dubbed the WLR.
(3) Next was the promise that you'd get
your response to us before the end of the year. Which was again reinforced by your rep in the Senate Estimates hearing:
Senator XENOPHON: I just wanted to ask you, Mr Mrdak and the minister, about the Senate report
Aviation accident investigations of May 2013, otherwise known as the Pel-Air report. That report contained a number of quite scathing findings both in relation to CASA and the ATSB, in particular the Chief Commissioner of the ATSB, about his competence in the handling of that investigation. It raised a number of serious issues in terms of the exchange of information between the two agencies and whether that, in fact, compromised or could potentially compromise air safety. Can the minister indicate—you may not need to take this on notice—when the government will be responding to quite a damning report that was unanimous in its findings across any party lines about—
Senator Sinodinos: My advice was we would respond before the end of the year. Are you aware that last week the minister also released the terms of reference and members for an international panel to undertake a fairly comprehensive review into aviation safety regulations in Australia?
(4) Now the IOS find that, much like the last mob, we have sailed past the due date for the answering of Senate Estimate QONs, again without any excuses offered...
Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development
Questions on notice index: (PDF 548KB)
Answers are due Friday 10 January 2014
With all due respect Minister I have got half a dozen IOS members written submissions in my inbox, (members who are prepared to play the WLR game and make submissions) but their draft submissions are currently on hold with a
Draft One {with the bureau debacle still to be fixed} &
Draft two {with the bureau debacle partially fixed} version, these drafts hinge on:
(a) Your response to the PelAir report and Senator Xenophon's request to the department:
Senator XENOPHON: For instance—I am not saying this would be the case—if the majority of this committee was minded to ask for that response at some stage, whether it waits for the minister's response to the Senate inquiry with recommendations, you do not see any particular difficulty with that as a matter of principle?
Mr Mrdak : Without pre-empting the minister's consideration of the matter, we have put an extensive amount of material and a draft response to successive ministers. Without prejudicing that process I will take that on notice.
Senator XENOPHON: Let us not talk at cross purposes here. I am saying that CASA gave a considered response presumably to the Senate inquiry, to the minister, to consider. That itself would not be a draft, it would be a document from CASA to the department. What harm would there be for that document eventually seeing the light of day?
Mr Mrdak : Again, without recalling the exact details of the document, I do not have an issue in principle, but I need to take it on notice.
Senator XENOPHON: At the end of the day you would not have an issue in principle with that being released, would you, Mr McCormick?
Mr McCormick : Again, I will take it on notice. I personally do not, but I am not sure what the protocols are. Perhaps Dr Aleck might have something to say.
Dr Aleck : I will concur with what has gone before and to add that CASA made a number of submissions to that inquiry. To the extent that the recommendations dealt with the same issues that were covered by the submissions I suspect there would be some alignment with our submissions.
Senator XENOPHON: That is why I am hoping to see that document sooner rather than later.
and; (b) Your department/agency response to certain QONs, for example Senator Xenophon's:
139 CASA 09 XENOPHON
Report on Aviation Accident Investigations
Senator XENOPHON: Mr McCormick, today marks four years to the day since the ditching of the VH-NGA off Norfolk Island and nearly seven months since the references committee issued its report on aviation accident investigations. Has CASA formulated a response to the recommendations in the report?
Mr McCormick: The part that we had to do has been completed. The documents are no longer with CASA.
Senator XENOPHON: But there were various recommendations and you have given your views as to those recommendations to the department?
Mr McCormick: Yes, we have.
Senator XENOPHON: When did you do that?
Mr McCormick: I would have to take the exact date on notice. It was before the election.
You can see our dilemma Minister and with a due date of the 31st the clock is well and truly ticking..
.
TICK..TOCK indeed...
So Minister
'Where the bloody hell are you?'