Merged: Senate Inquiry

[Kharon]

The safety slippery dip.

Ever watched the kids on a slippery dip? – some who try desperately to stop; others who manage to stop and then try to run back up to the top; all ends in tears. All you can do is pray they don't get too hurt or hurt others while the hard lessons of life are learned.

That's how our impoverished ATSB seem to be to me, stuck halfway on the slippery path to perdition, led to this sorry impasse by bureaucrats, politicians and bean counters; seduced by association with some of the darkest forces ever to hold sway over matters aeronautical, ably assisted by an incompetent, parsimonious management squadron of trained buffoons and spin kings. Have a look at the calm, professional bunch running the AMSA, then decide.

Some cultures do not place very much value on a human life, never have and are not likely to change. This is not the Australian way; men and women from the armed forces, police, ambulance services, fire-fighters and many, many more daily demonstrate the value we as a nation place on life. Where someone dies or is hurt there is an inquiry of some description – even a humble coroners court will attempt to define the cause and create some form of preventative measure, where practical and possible. We have an extensive, expensive system of rule, regulation, law, protocol, practice and common sense that attempts, barring stupidity, to prevent the unnecessary wasting of life.

Cause; now there's a word to consider: in the Beaker lexicon, a life is only as valuable as his parsimonious edicts say it is. You die in an aircraft tomorrow, the ATSB may, or may not deem your incident worthy of investigation, just a GA prang, move along. It may well be that there is some 'value' to the investigation: but only so far as to shift the blame; or, to be in concert with what the 'big dogs' want. No, not bollocks; look about you, see what you are spoon fed for reports, see what is passed off as 'cause', see what is milked as blame, see what is done to prevent, see, if you dare, what impact the 'investigation' has on the 'authority' responsible. You don't need to look very far or very deep, just ask any Pel Air committee Senator.

You can read it in the H14/18 words, these are 'differences'; scripted by lawyers who know how to appear ICAO compliant, while arrogantly flipping the bird at the ICAO spirit, intent and the rest of the world. Australia's Annexe 13 is a calculated, cynical exercise designed to confound the unwashed masses and makes a cuckold of the ICAO. No other country makes a such an open mockery of accident investigation, is selective in what it will investigate and blatantly blames this on lack of 'resources'. The budget may be constrained but there's no reason not to spend it – all of it and ask for more if needed. Hells bells that 'Direct action' outfit cleans up $2.55 Billion in handouts, surely we could use some of that so as not be an international, smart arse pariah, crying poor at every (given, taken or engineered) opportunity. Shame on you.

No other country takes the Mickey out of 'confidential' reporting; read what we say in H18/14:- Chapter 8 paragraph 8.2 – read it and weep. The only thing not provided to CASA is the pilot name; same - same for Repcon – colour of socks to date time place of the alleged incident; even if you reported yourself. Signed confession; and, ATSB dare claim to be 'puzzled' by a sharp decline in the numbers of 'reports'. FFS why hide it – we tell CASA all as per the MOU, which we will call 'differences'.

Have a look at the SIUYA list of other NAA, then have a look at any of the ICAO annexe 13 protocols; almost every country bar Australia is in tune, investigates accidents 'properly', generates reports and safety recommendations. The dinosaurs departed the fix many, many moons ago. It's time now for our cynical, parsimonious, deviate system to head in that direction.

Just stop it before Australia gets hurt – or ICAO spot the deliberate, systematic rapine of what should be a world class safety outfit, reporting honestly, openly and regularly to the industry it is paid to serve.

Arrrggggh – steam off.