I'm afraid from what I have seen of Canberra that Dick is right.
1. Canberra and its public service minions think of themselves as 'rulers" of Australia, they are totally unresponsive to the requests of ordinary citizens. We are an annoyance if we protest.
2. the senior public servants I saw in a variety of Departments view their "Customer" as the Minister, not the general public. We are relegated to "consumers". Hence their is no hope in hell of any customer focused initiative succeeding in our terms.
3. The RAAF, with one or two notable exceptions has an unfortunate capability of breeding unresponsive, egocentric, rigid thinkers with an enormous sense of self importance who find it difficult to cope with decision making in a commercial free market environment where information flow is less than perfect and decisions need to be made under uncertainty. Their usual response is to try to turn the organization they inhabit into a carbon copy of the Air Force, complete with hierarchy. They are incapable of independent thinking, let alone change or reform.
4. RAAF Officers seem to believe they are in some type of private club. Hence in institutions they form their own clique and work together as a. team to. achieve their own group objectives at the expense of and in defiance of, the goals. of the institution.
5. Traits (1) and (2) amplify the behaviors of (3). and (4) Canberra is a very small hot house that brings out the worst. The grey sponge incubates these creatures.
6. The freedom of movement of citizens via GA and recreational flying is as a direct threat to the rule of Canberra and is also anathema to the RAAF. That is why. ADS-B is so attractive - total information awareness to make control easier to achieve. ASICS, etc. and restrictive regulations are a step in this direction. Make no mistake, Canberra wants MORE regulation, ideally you shut GA and recreational aviation down as soon as possible. the Freudian slip about pilots being uncaught criminals is a reflection of this attitude.
To put that another way don't listen to what CASA says, watch what they do.
But wait, there is more.....ADFA is. a disaster according to a couple of people I know who have experienced it, and it's going to make matters much worse in future. ADFA now suffers from rampant political correctness and favoritism - did you know for example, that there are now 'military families' in Australia? junior goes to ADFA and gets special treatment because Daddy is an Admiral/General/AVM? sad but true. just wait till these perfumed princes and princesses join the ranks of our 'leaders".
unfortunately I believe I was correct when the good AVM was appointed, not a hope in hell of real reform despite his best intentions.
oh, and an integrated ATC system that is affordable and capable? not a hope in hell.
Last edited by Sunfish; 24th May 2016 at 23:07.