And so the minister has sent in his own man.
The appointment this week of
Shane Carmody as Acting CEO and Director of Aviation Safety raises more questions than it provides answers. Carmody was Deputy Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, and as a former CASA Deputy Director he went to that job with a solid aviation background. The move was applauded in the aviation community; he was seen as a white-hat that shouldn't have been passed over for DAS when
John McCormick landed the role. Now, Shane Carmody gets his chance to drink from a chalice that has becoming increasingly poisoned. CASA DAS has become responsible for a string of broken hearts, and no-one in the position in the past 20 years been able to stamp authority on the place and rein in the rampant bureacracy that has infected the regulator. Suddenly,
Minister Darren Chester expects Shane Carmody to do the job by the end of the year. Honestly, if Carmody has the goods to do that, then just leave him there. If he can't do that, then Mr Chester has a problem larger than he ever knew, as it may come to pass that no one person can clean up CASA to the point that it has any earned authority over those it regulates. Within weeks of Carmody striding in through the automatic doors at
Aviation House, I have no doubt that he'll be reporting back to Chester that he
does indeed have a problem larger than anyone at the department ever thought. Having said that, Carmody has been there before; he has first-hand frustration with the empire building, megalomania and job-protection rackets that continue to undermine reform attempts. He could have written such a report a month ago! Maybe he did ... maybe that's why the minister has sent his own man in now; because no-one else is capable of being the walk-up start needed to drive reform.
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The Last Minute Hitch: 2 September 2016 - Australian Flying
The Last Minute Hitch: 2 September 2016 - Australian Flying