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Senate speeds Airservices inquiry
• by: EAN HIGGINS
• From: The Australian
• June 20, 2015 12:00AM
The Senate is fast-tracking an ¬inquiry into Airservices Australia following revelations of a blowout in executive pay, alleged credit-card rorting and its failure to gain approval for major capital works.
The move follows The Australian’s revelations recently of a 40 per cent-plus rise in senior executive salaries, including a 60 per cent increase in performance bonuses to nearly $800,000 for fewer than a dozen managers.
The inquiry will also look into aviation issues facing Airservices, which runs the nation’s air traffic control system and airport firefighting services, including whether controlled airspace should be extended where radar is available.
It will canvass whether firefighters at regional airports without control towers should be trained to use the Unicom radio service to give basic air-traffic and weather information to pilots.
The inquiry will subpoena Airservices’ financial records to hold an audit and call witnesses, including chairman Angus Houston.
The Senate’s rural, regional affairs and transport legislation committee plans to meet the week after next to map out the investi¬gation, with a view to holding public hearings in one or two months.
The committee chairman, Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, said the inquiry would examine “recent revelations” and other matters, but declined to comment further.
The revelations have given Labor and Coalition committee members the impetus to delve into a government-owned organisation that they believe has ¬serious ¬issues of administration, transparency and accountability.
The committee’s senior Labor senator, Glenn Sterle, noted the revelation in 2012 that then Airservices chief executive Greg Russell had run up a corporate credit-card bill of $243,702 between January 2007 and August 2010.
He resigned soon after the exposure but Airservices defended the credit-card use as acceptable for an executive whose job required him to travel internationally and to host senior aviation officials.
Senator Sterle said the organisation had to be held accountable, saying this applied to replacement chief executive Margaret Staib, the board and Sir Angus.
A Coalition senator said: “It seems to me it has been a seriously uninspected operation.”
At a Senate estimates hearing in October, committee members of all parties castigated Ms Staib, criticising Airservices’ failure to meet its statutory obligation to advise the Senate of major capital works proposals.
They were also incredulous that alleged credit- card fraud by a middle manager had not been reported to police.
Although she promised senators she would consider the matter, Ms Staib never reported the alleged fraud, informing Senator Heffernan by letter that the established loss amounted to less than $3000 and she had used her statutory discretion to not refer it.
Yesterday, Airservices said the bigger salary pool for senior executives reflected changes in the composition of top management and an adjustment after a dip.
It said the average rise in base salary last financial year was 2.25 per cent and, according to its calculations, 5.2 per cent including bonuses.