The Australian:
The opposition has called for South Australian Skills Minister Susan Close to “come clean” over why she kept quiet for months after a national air safety regulator audit exposed a serious training bungle at TAFE SA that could have endangered the lives of air travellers.
South Australian Liberal Opposition Deputy Leader Vickie Chapman today told reporters in Adelaide the revelations in The Weekend Australianexposed a “scandal”.
“We have a situation where TAFE are now under review in respect of an aviation maintenance and engineering course,” Ms Chapman said.
“This is not about greasing a bicycle chain. This is about keeping planes in the sky.”
As revealed by The Weekend Australian, around 90 aircraft maintenance engineers, whose jobs are to ensure planes and helicopters are safe to fly, have been caught up in the scandal at the Parafield Airport campus of TAFE SA.
Those affected include a small number of Qantas engineers.
An investigation by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and TAFE SA is ongoing with some training activities and licence conditions suspended “until further notice”.
Ms Chapman called on Skills Minister Susan Close, who was informed of the bungle in April, to “come clean”.
“It is absolutely critical now that Minister Close come clean as to why she has kept this review a secret now for four months,” she said.
“It is totally unacceptable that such a serious allegation, resulting in a secret review should have continued to be concealed from the public.
“Minister Close had every opportunity to report to the parliament what had happened, what she was doing about it, and provide reassurance to the public.
“Instead she has been absolutely silent on this for four months.
“This government just continue in scandal after scandal and concealment of these events, which is not only unacceptable but leaves in this instance a situation of serious concern by the community.”
A small number of Qantas engineers have been caught up int he scandal. Picture: Jenny Evans
A small number of Qantas engineers have been caught up int he scandal. Picture: Jenny Evans
A spokeswoman for Dr Close said the minister was advised of the matter in late April and sought her own reassurance.
“The Minister was notified in late April and as a result sought immediate and comprehensive advice on the matter and how it was to be resolved,” the spokeswoman said.
Ms Chapman said the bungle had left scores of students in limbo and “who now have a certificate which isn’t worth the paper it’s written on”.
“Clearly they will need to be re-skilled if they want to pursue this type of occupation. They are the first lot of victims,” she said,
“But the people of South Australia are victims when this type of scandal is continued to be concealed. We want to know what has happened and obviously some reassurance that this hasn’t permeated other aspects of TAFE.”
TAFE SA executive director of education Brian Rungie told The Weekend Australian that the issues, mainly around administration, identified by CASA were “critical in this (aviation) environment”.
“This is quite embarrassing,” he said.
“The training itself was where it needed to be, but we couldn’t demonstrate it.”
Mr Rungie said retraining and compensation for those affected would be considered on a “one-on-one basis”.
“From our internal perspective, this has been a situation that clearly is not satisfactory and we will be addressing internally,” he said. “We’ve let ourselves down.”
A CASA spokesman said, “issues were found with training assessments and outcomes”.
“These issues related to procedures that must be followed under their approved maintenance training manual,” the spokesman said.
“CASA will ensure all issues are fully rectified before normal training activities resume.”
Some affected aircraft maintenance engineers have told The Weekend Australian that the failure to teach to acceptable standards potentially had endangered lives.
But the CASA spokesman said: “Aviation safety has been protected through the checks and balances built into the aircraft maintenance system.”
There are only three other centres in the country offering the training; at TAFE NSW, Aviation Australia and Federation Training in Gippsland, Victoria.
An ongoing investigation into the TAFE SA course, which involves a “student-by-student review of all material”, is expected to be completed within weeks, Mr Rungie said.