Labor Minister for Transport A. Albanese did the independent regulator transformation on the ATSB, 2009 I think, and therefore, like CASA, it lost the political imperatives and incentives that come with direct Departmental responsibility. Mr. Albanese was very clear in his reasoning to divest the Government, himself and Cabinet of the responsible oversight of ATSB. He claimed that it should be above politics and the change went through Parliament with barely a whisper of doubt from anyone as far as I remember.
It is some 30 years since CASA was afforded this independent status. Two important factors occur when this change is made.
Firstly, as Bill Hamilton pointed out to me many years ago, as a statutory body CASA can be sued, a Department cannot. Therefore CASA goes to great lengths to cover itself, the consequences of that process, the near destruction of what was a vibrant industry, is all too clear.
Secondly, the new structure lent itself to a large increase in salaries on the basis that they needed to pay commercial rates by virtue of being a corporation.
And so we have the incongruous situation that the fatuously titled Director of Air Safety (CASA CEO) is paid considerably more than his Minister.
What has happened without any debate is Parliament ridding itself of responsibility and accountability in these two areas and many others. Our democracy is being undermined with the totally misguided concept that government can outsource to an independent corporation who will have only the highest motives to act in the public interest, but to act without having the public involved. Of course it doesn’t make sense. No wonder the public have little faith in politicians because through the millions of individual interactions with government instrumentalities its plain that the bureaucracies have the upper hand. The trend of population growth in Canberra is one measure, with Queanbeyan now 450,000 and at last count the Commonwealth runs over 1200 instrumentalities. Canberra remuneration is 40% higher than the the average for the remainder of Australia.
It is some 30 years since CASA was afforded this independent status. Two important factors occur when this change is made.
Firstly, as Bill Hamilton pointed out to me many years ago, as a statutory body CASA can be sued, a Department cannot. Therefore CASA goes to great lengths to cover itself, the consequences of that process, the near destruction of what was a vibrant industry, is all too clear.
Secondly, the new structure lent itself to a large increase in salaries on the basis that they needed to pay commercial rates by virtue of being a corporation.
And so we have the incongruous situation that the fatuously titled Director of Air Safety (CASA CEO) is paid considerably more than his Minister.
What has happened without any debate is Parliament ridding itself of responsibility and accountability in these two areas and many others. Our democracy is being undermined with the totally misguided concept that government can outsource to an independent corporation who will have only the highest motives to act in the public interest, but to act without having the public involved. Of course it doesn’t make sense. No wonder the public have little faith in politicians because through the millions of individual interactions with government instrumentalities its plain that the bureaucracies have the upper hand. The trend of population growth in Canberra is one measure, with Queanbeyan now 450,000 and at last count the Commonwealth runs over 1200 instrumentalities. Canberra remuneration is 40% higher than the the average for the remainder of Australia.