Deal; or no deal. That is the question.
"Now Sir, will you have Bias stew or the Corruption meatloaf; both on special this week, only half a million each and seeing as the bottomless pit of public money is paying, why not have both?"
The story from the Perth fuel tanker is that this was to be a 'big deal' payback. Seems the big deal team were on a mission to 'square up' the accounts on behalf of a very disgruntled ex employee and when it got 'nasty' they started dealing to the legal eagles, from the bottom of the deck.
Like most bullies, they enjoyed the threatening, posturing and swaggering about the playground looking tough, until someone called their bluff that is. Not only did they run away but they left their 'street cred' and lunch money behind.
Three things trouble me, the first being that once again the 'system' has been perverted and used for payback in an almost carbon copy of the Airtex and Barrier fit up, rather than the Pel-Air soft ride. Agree with Jingles – heads really must roll if Australia is to retain even a semblance of credibility. Despite the smoke and mirrors 'accounting' system used to define exactly how much money CASA get through 'prosecuting'; this little party has chewed up AUD$ 800,000 in costs alone; add air fares, accommodation, meals and the odd therapeutic 'massage'; for both teams and a cool AUD $1,000,000 has gone down the gurgler, for no safety or regulatory benefit: not to anyone who ultimately, one way or t'uther, pays for all this legal fro-licking.
I note with interest that Adam Anastasi was in thick of it, defending his corner. I always wonder how much reliance the LSD place on 'allegations' made by the ground troops, apparently, quite a lot. After all, can we reasonably expect the man or his team to examine and test, in detail every NCN or Chinese whisper that comes over their desks? But for a million dollar outing you could reasonably expect that all the 'homework' had been done. Another last minute walk away, after ruffling his lordships feathers with delay after delay on 'the day' begs some interesting questions. Like how a non starter ever got to court in the first place. That's question for estimates, or the AG; no one just launches a multi million dollar law suite just for practice or on a whim.
But the real headache comes from knowing that this disreputable behaviour from FOI and AWI is the accepted normalised devience we have inherited from the McComic era. It's why the industry is afraid of it's own shadow and demoralised. Cowed into silence by bullies and cowards who will, just for sport or payback attempt to decimate a company on what have been, clearly, very flimsy grounds supported by untenable argument. Disgusting...
Hitch - my question for the DAS: is this really good enough Mr. Skidmore, is it?
Toot toot.