ProAviation - With the departure of the present CEO imminent, surely it would be timely now for the Minister to name without further delay the new CASA board and also the new CEO, who will face a daunting challenge on Monday September 1.
I expect the 'new' board will be part of the interview panel the final candidates ; I just wonder what the 'head-hunter' brief is and who scripted it. Seems to me that 'who' is left in the running at the final furlong marker will have been decided at the starting gate. Lets take a moment to consider how the handicappers decide which horses may run in a particular race. The Jockey club handicappers are obliged to ensure that the entrants are as evenly matched as possible; the ultimate art would be to have a dozen horses so close together at the finish you could throw a blanket over 'em. Honest, scrupulous folk, who make the napsters job tough...
In our little race for the DAS cup, the selection criteria have been published but the handicapper gets the first look in; sets the field as it were. There is no way of knowing how the handicapper is intending to select which pony gets a day out and which is sent back to stables.
Imagine, if you were asked some weighted questions, mixed with the banal; "Could you continue and complete the fine work started by McComic?". How would you answer a question like that; or, "Do you believe the executive team is rock solid?"; or, Do you feel Alan Hawke is an ideal chairman?".
To slow down fast horses, the handicapper "puts the weights up"; a crooked handicapper can, by simply 'weighting' a horse, affect the outcome of a race. No one is the wiser, least of all the mug punter who just lost his shirt, betting on the 'wrong' nag. Tricky business this 'orse racin'. The Jockey club rightly frown on such practice, but I wonder if the murky Machiavellian crowd have such scruples. Time will tell.....But if we get a clone, rather than a reformer, time to start manning the lifeboats.
Phelan - Of course reform is still several giant steps away, because it can only work when the new regulator’s new board and new management all accept that there exist obstructions that will take a cathartic change of corporate mindset to remove. The retraining or removal of the obstructionists will also be vital and should not be underestimated, because the philosophies that created the present system are still extant.