(From 'Australian Flying', 'The Last Minute Hitch' 26th May 2017.)
"Right now, several people in Canberra know who the new Director of Aviation safety is. The CASA board has signed, sealed and delivered their recommendation to Minister for Transport Darren Chester. It is unthinkable that Chester will over-ride the final candidate, so what ever name is on that report is the person will probably get the gig. Is that name Shane Carmody? If we take the approach "what has he done to lose the job?" we don't come up with a lot of show-stoppers. If the board has really given priority to getting the ASRR recommendations embedded, and that mean bulldozing the pushback, then their selection needs to be someone who will get that done with the greatest efficiency and the least resistance. That's going to require not only a bull-headed stubbornness to stick to the program, but also a deft ability to make people within CASA believe that this is good for them too. Does Shane Carmody have that within him? Ask Senator Sterle. Carmody frustrated him to tears in senate estimates on Tuesday after stubbornly refusing to answer hypothetical questions about drone incidents."
Like Lead Balloon, I'd be happy to see Shane Carmody become the next DAS. A DAS who understands objective risks would be rather refreshing.
