Originally Posted by
Lead Balloon
“Protected” through what mechanism?
Action can be taken, and has been taken, against individual officers of CASA, in that capacity, and by name.
The usual impediment to a successful action is the lack of admissible evidence sufficient to prove the elements of the claim to the requisite standard. That’s how the law works.
That's a very narrow view and I suggest a different view: the usual impediment to prosecuting a public servant might be that they were simply doing their job. If they are doing their job in an incompetent manner that changes things little, because this is often the case. Negligence is a step further, and generally (but not always!) if they undertake criminal actions their immunity is shot to bits.
I suspect that Australian public servants enjoy a common law protection from prosecution while doing their jobs in a responsible way (in "good faith"). There are also a great many Acts that spell this out.
I've had experience with trying to bring an action against a public servant and have witnessed the dramatic closing of the ranks by most fellow public servants against this threat. This wasn't in an aviation setting.
There is more info here:
https://www.alrc.gov.au/sites/defaul..._liability.pdf