[Peetwo]

Democracy? Why bother.

It’s a sad state of affairs when a couple of ‘honest’ hard working Senators get told to piss off – again by the ‘crats.  CASA do it regularly, it’s the default setting for ATSB and now the ASA seem to be untouchable.  We could save a shed load by getting shot of the Senate; or, conversely we could ensure the Senate has some real teeth and horsepower.  For some reason the safety watchdog outfits seem to be immune from censure or criticism and despite some serious questions and implications, feel able to ignore it all.  Business as usual.  It’s a long drawn out goalless draw, the public servant defenders never getting beyond their 25 yard line, concentrating on defence only; the Senate crew mounting attack after attack only to be beaten by a solid line of defenders, not even a penalty shootout to look forward to, which would at least bring the farce to an end.

An attack is mounted:-

The Senate committee’s chairman, the Liberals’ Bill Heffernan, and the deputy chair, Labor’s Glenn Sterle, have publicly called for the government to commit to not making an appointment to the CEO’s position until the report is tabled and considered, though making clear this is not to make any implication against any individual.

A signed confession:-

Mr Harfield was Airservices executive general manager for ¬future service delivery from July 2013 to August 2015 in which role, he says on his LinkedIn profile, he had “accountability for the leadership, acquisition and delivery” of OneSKY’’ and was its “Senior Responsible Owner”.

The defence swings into action and the referee ignores the foul.  No penalty awarded. 

A spokeswoman for Mr Chester declined the opportunity to provide the assurances sought by Senator Heffernan and Senator Sterle.

Stalemate.  Perhaps the cheerleaders at half time will provide some value for money.

Toot toot.  

The Empire of the RAeS strikes back - Up yours Heff, Sterle & Nick  

Hot off the Yaffa Press c/o Hitch:

Airservices Australia CEO Jason Harfield. (Airservices Australia)


Jason Harfield appointed Airservices CEO
09 Mar 2016

The Airservices Australia board announced today that it has appointed acting Chief Executive Officer Jason Harfield to the position full-time.

Harfield has been acting CEO since August 2015, when his predecessor Margaret Staib resigned citing health reasons.

“The Board reviewed an extensive field of candidates and concluded that Mr Harfield offered the right blend of experience, skill and drive to lead the organisation,” Airservices Australia Chair, Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC (Ret’d) said.

Harfield has over 25 years experience in the aviation industry.

UFB!  Well no actually, totally duckin' believable

Guess that means the ANAO audit will also be a white-wash, still I do suggest that Harf-wit gets his ducks in a row prior to next Estimates because he can't rely on Beaker providing top-cover beyond June this year :

QON 193 - Go-around incident of 22 December 2015


Senator XENOPHON: Perhaps you could take that on notice in relation to the first report. I go now to the issue of the LAHSO operations. There is a report being undertaken in respect of the 5 July incident 2015. Do you have an approximate time line of when that report will be completed?



Mr Dolan: We expect that report will be complete by July this year.



Senator XENOPHON: I ask you to take on notice information I received from constituents today about go-arounds including a touch-and-go, one that occurred on the 14 December 2013, and I will refer you to the Hansard.



Mr Dolan: We have been listening to those previous exchanges.



Senator XENOPHON: And if you could also provide information relating to the incident of 22 December 2015, that JQ 710 flight. Again, I am not being critical of the pilots at all. The passengers said that they appeared to be very close calls. Could you let us know (a) whether you were aware of it and (b) whether it is being investigated.



Mr Dolan: We are not currently aware of it. They are the sorts of incidents that if there had been a serious concern we would have been aware of it and paid attention to it.



Senator XENOPHON: In relation to that first incident, where the passenger described it as a Top Gun manoeuvre to accelerate and climb sharply on 14 December 2013, if an aircraft touches the runway, as this passenger reported, and needs to take off, is that the sort of thing you would investigate?



Mr Dolan: It would depend on the nature of the report that was given to us. It is at the extreme end of a go-around. As I say, it is the sort of thing that would have got our attention, which is why am surprised that it did not.



Senator XENOPHON: Can you please take on notice whether you were aware of these incidents and if you were not aware of them whether you are able to make inquiries through Air Services or CASA in respect to them because these matters have been brought to my attention.



Mr Dolan: Yes.

Adelaide TCU


Timeline

1. I understand from your previous submission to this Committee that the Adelaide TCU consolidation into Melbourne is "proposed to commence from 2017". (Airservices Australia, Terminal Control Unit Integration Initiative, Submission to the RRAT Committee, August 2015, pg 4)

2. Is Airservices Australia on schedule to deliver this outcome.

3. If not, why not.


Business Case

4. At Budget Estimates last year, you released a copy of the business case.

5. Do you stand by all financial assumptions which underpin this case, particularly for efficiencies related to staffing, supervision and co-location for technology and hardware. (Airservices Australia, 2015 BE, QoN 107)

6. If not, will you now provide an updated business case – on notice if necessary.


Safety Case

7. I refer to the Air Services Australia Terminal Control Unit Integration submission to this committee which states that "prior to implementation, the CASA will need to approve the safety case which includes documented evidence that safety impacts have been adequately considered and addressed". (Airservices Australia, Terminal Control Unit Integration Initiative, Submission to the RRAT Committee, August 2015, Appendix B)

8. Can you advise the Committee of the current status of the safety case relating to the relocation of air traffic controllers from Adelaide to Melbourne.

9. Has it been finalised.

10. Has it been presented to CASA.

11. Has CASA evaluated and/or approved the proposal.

12. If it has not been finalised, when will it be finalised.

13. Will the Safety Case be made public. If not, why not.


Additional processes

14. How much has been spent on the TCU integration project so far. Is it running on budget or over budget.

15. Is the Airservices Australia Board required to formally approve funding for the project.

16. Has that occurred. If not, when will it occur.

17. Is this project required to go before the Public Works Committee.

18. Has this occurred. If not, when will it occur.


TCU Controllers – Adelaide

19. How many Air Traffic Controllers are in Adelaide - including the TCU and both towers.

20. How many Air Traffic Controllers will remain after the transition.
21.Does this mean there will be job losses of highly skilled jobs in Adelaide following the transition.
22. What consultation have you had with the local member for Hindmarsh, Mr Matt Williams, regarding these job losses.


Career Opportunities

23. I refer to your submission to this Committee which states that "career development opportunities for air traffic controllers will be improved" (Airservices Australia, Terminal Control Unit Integration Initiative, Submission to the RRAT Committee, August 2015, pg 10)

24. I also refer to the statement that "all controllers who wish to remain at their current location will be accommodated – no one will lose their job". (Airservices Australia, Terminal Control Unit Integration Initiative, Submission to the RRAT Committee, August 2015, pg 10)

25. What career opportunities will be available for those air traffic controllers who choose to remain in Adelaide, if the majority of operations are moving to Melbourne.

26. Will they be eligible for further career diversification or promotion if they choose to remain in Adelaide.  

Sir A on Harfwit as CEO - "Safe trough feeding for all"
MTF..P2

[Gobbledock]

I'm sure Harfwit will be dining well tonight on that corporate credit card (watch that double chin Jase) celebrating his long life ambition being achieved! He probably even got a special pin that Sir Anus personally pinned on him. (It's a RAAF arse licking thing)

However the celebrations will be brief, so don't get too comfy Jase. There are some serious safety, airspace, credit card, tender, morale and probity issues with ASA, and everybody knows it. The IOS aren't going anywhere mate. There has been a legacy of issues at the top since Russell's time and even prior. From CEO to the Board, this mob are questionable. However it's not easy slicing through such a highly prized revenue earner such as ASA, owned by the Government and all. Nobody comes between a Government and it's money, no IOS member, no Senator and no transparent third party body. 

All that Murky has achieved today is to drive another wedge between industry and government. They think they are being clever, they're not. This will only create further distrust and contempt between the IOS and the inept cash cow ASA. The list of dross is frightening; Russell, Staib, Houston, Chambers, Harfwit.........Oh well, at least Dougy will be getting all wet in the crotch about the announcement!

The 60 Minutes countdown clock sped up today..TICK TOCK

[Kharon]

You may take my silence on this matter as:-

Stunned, shocked, outraged, unbelieving, exasperated, offended, vexed and/or scandalised.

‘Nuff said.

[Peetwo]

Airservices Australia names Jason Harfield CEO

• Mitchell Bingemann
  
• The Australian
  
• March 9, 2016 5:22PM
  

The government-owned national air traffic control organisation Airservices Australia has ended a seven-month hunt for a new chief executive and appointed acting CEO Jason Harfield to the role.



The appointment comes despite ongoing controversy surrounding the government-body and its dealings with an obscure Canberra-based organisation with international military links called the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM).

Mr Harfield, who started with Airservices 26 years ago as an air traffic controller, was appointed acting chief executive after the resignation last July of former RAAF officer Margaret Staib.

Mr Harfield has lobbied internally to take the top job and has been considered a favourite despite Airservices hiring executive headhunting firm Spencer Stuart to conduct a global search for a new chief.

“The board reviewed an extensive field of candidates and concluded that Mr Harfield offered the right blend of experience, skill and drive to lead the organisation,” said Airservices Australia Chair, Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston.

The appointment comes despite bipartisan requests — from Liberal senator Bill Heffernan and Labor senator Glenn Sterle — to ensure no new chief executive was appointed at Airservices before the findings of the investigation into dealings over the organisation’s controversial $1.5 billion OneSky air traffic control project were known.

OneSKY will integrate the nation’s civilian and military air traffic control systems.

As revealed by The Australian, the Australian National Audit Office late last year launched an inquiry into contracts awarded by Airservices to consultants associated with the mysterious Canberra-based ICCPM.

Last year members of the Senate rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee grilled Mr Harfield and other Airservices executives, claiming the arrangements with ICCPM were conflicted.

ANAO is assessing whether these claims — which revolve around negotiations for the award of a major contract for the OneSKY project — are true or not.
The ANAO is due hand down its report in the autumn session of parliament.

Slow off the Yaffa?? -   (Warning: Bucket maybe required )

Unlike Binger from the Oz (above) the Yaffa's resident anorak (& Harfy's No 1 fan) Dougy, was somewhat slow off the mark with the glad tidings. Hmm..maybe he was too busy celebrating with the other RAeS trough-feeders, anyway here is Dougy's totally unbiased opinion on the Harfwit coup:

Observation Deck

25 Feb 2016

Just when Airservices felt that the heat was coming off after a horror year in terms of adverse publicity, there’s been another bout of hysteria focused on the probity of the huge OneSKY project.

Yes, the way it’s painted in the media, there’s a strong sniff of conflict of interest in one aspect of how the deal was put together, but in terms of the critical importance and urgency of OneSKY it seems almost irrelevant.

I’d suggest that the Australian National Audit Office gets on wth its probe into this possible irregularity, but without impacting the progress of OneSKY, which we are going to need within the next 24 months or so.

The issue also appears to have delayed the appointment of a new CEO for Airservices, with acting CEO Jason Harfield confirmed in the role just yesterday. Harfield performed strongly in the acting role and has earned a go on a more permanent basis, but for a while it looked like the board was hesitant to announce the appointment of ‘an insider’ while there’s still a question mark hovering over the OneSKY contract.

Harfield meanwhile has significantly bolstered the AA corporate communications team by the appointments of Alec Wagstaff and Steve Creedy. Add that to the impressive professionalism of incumbent Rob Walker and it’s a formidable capability. Maybe 12 months ago would have been better timing, but then it wasn’t Jason Harfield’s call back then.

Now that Harfield is confirmed in the top job, hopefully all concerned can get on with the job.

 
How's the bucket, full yet?  

[Gobbledock]

Of CEO's, bus drivers and lapdogs

I just filled a mini skip full of vomit P2.  But at least the poodle, Dougy, is consistent in his glowing endorsement, admiration and love of his idol - Harfwit.

Poodle said;

"The way it’s painted in the media, there’s a strong sniff".

Indeed there is Dougy, I have also smelt it on the streets of Can'tberra, it is the smell of Harfwits pooh on your nose and tongue (some of Sir An(g)us as well). I suggest you buy some floss, Listerine and a bib for next time. What folly.

Poodle also said;

"Harfield meanwhile has significantly bolstered the AA corporate communications team by the appointments of Alec Wagstaff and Steve Creedy".

Bolstered of Bolshevik? Creepy will also be busy penning glowing endorsements of Team Harfwit, posting photos of 'electric blue' as he swans about with the Can'tberra spin doctor brigade, eating and drinking at fine restaurants and backslapping and swapping spit while revelling in their so-called successes. All this achieves is a spinning of what will be released publicly. All bullshit. What folly.

And again from the Poodle;

"there’s been another bout of hysteria focused on the probity of the huge OneSKY project".

Hysteria Dougy? I think more like hysterectomy. Harfwit needs to have you removed from inside him! I don't think the well educated Senators or the ANAO would be calling for or engaging in action based on just a whim. If you think that is hysteria then you've been spending too much time with your 'brown blinkers on', in other words with your head up bureaucrats asses. What folly.

Oh well, at lest the match fit Harfwit is 'getting on with it' and is busy erecting barricades and protective walls around his domain, the center of his empire. Obviously he has learned some lessons from Grand Wizard Sir Anus, who is well versed in that game.

TICK TOCK

[Peetwo]

CEO's, bus drivers and lapdogs - Part II

ASA's OneSKY project just keeps on giving, according to 'that man' in the Oz today..

OneSKY head’s appointment raises eyebrows

• Ean Higgins
  
• The Australian
  
• March 11, 2016 12:00AM
  

Chris Deeble has been named the OneSKY program executive.

Airservices Australia has ­appointed a top RAAF officer to take charge of the $1.5 billion OneSKY next generation air traffic control program, reporting ­directly to newly appointed chief executive Jason Harfield.

But the move has raised questions among Airservices staff, as until last week the new appointee was a director of the obscure Canberra organisation whose consulting contracts for OneSKY are under investigation by a government watchdog.

The Australian can reveal that Air Vice Marshall Chris Deeble, who is in charge of the troubled Joint Strike Fighter program at the Department of Defence, will take up the role of “OneSKY program executive” later this month.

As a decorated RAAF pilot flying among other aircraft Canberras and F-111s, Mr Deeble accumulated 2500 operational flying hours, and has held a number of senior administrative defence appointments including one covering the problematic Collins class submarines.

In his new role, Mr Deeble will be in charge of the $1.5bn One­SKY program to integrate civilian and military air traffic control and navigation systems in a state of the art national network.

As of late last week, when The Australian started making inquiries concerning Mr Deeble, he was listed as a director on the website of the International Centre for Complex Project Management, a Canberra-based organisation with military and aerospace links. But this week he was no longer listed as a director for ICCPM.

A web search shows Mr Deeble was active in ICCPM, delivering an address to a symposium organised by the group and being ­appointed a fellow in December.

Following a request from the Senate rural and regional affairs and transport legislation committee, the Australian National Audit Office last year launched an investigation into alleged possible conflicts of interest between ICCPM and Airservices over OneSKY contracts. It is due to report to parliament in May.

The audit office says it is investigating “whether Airservices Australia has effective procurement arrangements in place, with a particular emphasis on whether consultancy contracts entered into with ICCPM in association with the OneSKY Australia project were effectively administered”.

A Senate committee hearing last year heard of how a “husband and wife team” had been on opposite sides of a contract transaction between Airservices and ICCPM over OneSKY.
Steve Hein, who worked for ICCPM until hired by Airservices in a senior managerial role, processed a contract as an Airservices executive with ICCPM, where his wife Deborah Hein is managing director.

The committee heard that Airservices had outsourced the job of negotiating with the lead contractor for OneSKY, aerospace giant Thales Australia, to former RAAF officer Harry Bradford, an ICCPM director, when the chairman of ICCPM, Chris Jenkins, was Thales managing director.

Mr Bradford had been paid more than $1 million by Airservices by the middle of last year.
“The perception of conflict of interest is all over this,” Labor senator Joe Bullock said at the committee hearing in August, joining chairman, Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, in describing the ­arrangements as “incestuous”.

An Airservices source told The Australian staff in Canberra were “shocked” when rumours of Mr Deeble’s appointment surfaced in recent weeks, given the ongoing nature of the audit office investigation, saying there was a perception problem in “having anyone responsible for finalising contract negotiations between Airservices and Thales also being a current or recent director of ICCPM.”

An Airservices spokesman said the government-owned organisation had no concerns about how the appointment of Mr Deeble would be perceived in relation to his ICCPM links.

Mr Deeble was not available for interview.

 
Jeez...in my next life I want to come back as a RAAF AVM

MTF..P2

[Kharon]

Dear Ean.  Master of understatement.

Jeez Louise; only eyebrows.  ‘Iggins fails to mention the new appointments raises bile, ire and vomit.

A lunatic in charge of the asylum with his own, hand picked little press release specialists, now isolated from reality by yet another AVM with an equally spotty track record.  Bugger the Senate, sod the Audit, ignore the conflict of interest, accept the nepotism, suck up the overspend; just another day at the office.  

An Airservices source told The Australian staff in Canberra were “shocked” when rumours of Mr Deeble’s appointment surfaced in recent weeks, given the ongoing nature of the audit office investigation, saying there was a perception problem in “having anyone responsible for finalising contract negotiations between Airservices and Thales also being a current or recent director of ICCPM.”

John 11.35: is the Senate committee just going to sit back and let this happen? Now that elections draw near.  Probably is the answer that sneaks to the fore.

Toot (retch) toot.

Nah, leave the steam off GD; lets go see what the Masons are up to, better still lets join the RAeS.  If you can’t beat ‘em etc.

[Gobbledock]

Sorry K, the bull is in the pen and the red flag has been waived at it and it ain't happy, not one little bit!!!

WTF??? What an absolute sham. The legacy of the Russellites continues unabated! Oink fu#king oink!

Sir An(g)us, of RAAF fame at a time when bullying was out of control as well as sexual harassment, and when numerous projects were royaly fu#ked up costing the taxpayer mega dollars now hires a buddy, who also comes from a similar background of a time when bullying was out of control and billions were blown on the Collins Submarine shitboxes!

These clowns are unbelievable! However it shows that the ANAO has either been whitewashed or are equally rooted, otherwise Harfwit wouldn't have ever been appointed and nor would Chris Gerbils. So the audit result is pretty obvious. 

So here we go, more military ineptitude brought into the fold by Sir Bus Driver. 
I feel for the good folk at ASA, screwed over by the boys in 'Electric Blue', a whole team of electric blue catamites wielding cheque books and indulging in the freedom to act as they please while not being subjected to the common rules of morality or ACCOUNTABILTY. Nice job if you can land it!

So Kharon, if I were a younger man I would do things very different - my career would have involved a different path, I would have been an F 1-11 Navigator for a few years, grabbed the soap in the shower, kissed my Seniors arses for a number of years, learned how to lie and bullshit succinctly and spent another 15 years backstabbing and knifing my way to the top. Then in my 50's I too would have a million dollar annual government pay packet with even more millions awaiting me in superannuation. F#ck flying commercially for a crust, their is no financial career in doing that shit! 

"PLUMP TROUGHS FOR SOME"

[Peetwo]

Yet another MH370 v PelAir parallel -
{LONG post Warning}  

The disappearance of MH370 in one of the busiest airway bottle necks in the world, highlighted many safety deficiencies of several SE Asian ICAO signatory States but none more than the Malaysians. The MH370 1st anniversary interim report (see link HERE) highlighted many of these deficiencies & significant safety issues of the Malaysian ATC airspace & system. The following is a quote from Nural Izzah Anwar, in Malaysiakini publication April 2015, that called for action on the Malaysian MH370 Annex 13 interim report findings:

MH370 exposed massive failure




As the MH370 incident has shown us, there are still many weaknesses in Malaysia’s aviation safety. While commenting on the interim report on the case, CNN news anchor Richard Quest, has said that the biggest scandal in the MH370 case is the failure of the air traffic controllers in South East Asia including Malaysia to take action even though the radars has managed to pick up strange movements by the plane in the hours prior to the search and rescue is launched.

It is imperative that Malaysia begins to disclose these audit reports to the stakeholders including to the members of the public, as this would open up opportunities for the stakeholders to suggest ways and new technologies that is available to improve aviation safety.

As such, I demand the government to reveal audit findings by local and international bodies in a transparent and timely manner. Improvements would inch along if government keeps the “government-knows-best” stance. 

For this, I urge the government to set up a parliamentary select committee on Civil Aviation Safety and Security. In dealing with safety issues, the public deserves to know that the government is working at its best to ensure the public’s lives are of the utmost importance

In another strange comparison, although with different identified safety issues, the PelAir VH-NGA ditching involved a very similar cross-jurisdictional FIR/ATC situation that contributed to the causal chain that led to the accident. Reference O&O thread post #51:  

Why Beaker elected to leave the OBR in the water has always intrigued the curiosity bump. Perhaps there is some common or garden reason, maybe even the pragmatic ‘of no value to the investigation’ could be the simple, truthful answer.  But, the accursed bump keeps itching away; motive and who benefits, nag, nag, nag.  Put that aside for the moment.

Since the Senate inquiry there has been a massive, sulky, passive resistance to recovery of the OBR, dragging of feet and general reluctance to get on with it.  Hell, it took a directive from the blasted minister to get the ball rolling and even then, every back door was checked for an escape route.  Time goes by, but eventually the day arrives and up from the shallows off Norfolk – the black box emerges: and, bugger it all; the rotten thing works, just fine.

Dom J is not too concerned about this, the Senate and punters are happy, so why the long faces at Beaker bunker?  IMO the OBR will not shed much more light on the general picture; it will tidy up some loose ends and provide ‘hard’ data, but it will not explain why it was consigned to a watery grave.

Toot 123, 123, 123 –( ¾ time, eminently suitable for Sunday).

Very clever Ferryman  
I have a very vague memory of the old 123 ALT requirements..

For the record from an excellent blog piece titled - IFR Alternate Requirements

...The FAR 91.169 states that an alternate airport is always required except when the worse forecast at the destination airport from 1 hour before to 1 hour after the estimated time of arrival (ETA) is expecting a ceiling of at least 2000 feet and 3 statute miles of visibility.. 

Also relevant - from the blog piece - to the Ferryman question IMO is this statement:

..Approved sources of weather forecasts for the purposes of alternate requirements are: Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAF) and Area Forecasts (FA). The pilot must also remember that a TAF is only valid within 5 statute miles from the terminal of an airport, and, consequently, referencing to a TAF as a “forecast source” when the first point of intended landing is 5 or more statute miles from the nearest reporting TAF station would be invalid...

The part in bold is continuously overlooked when considering the weather information that was apparently relayed under request to the pilots of VH-NGA. Although there was two BOM amended TAFs issued (both of which required the provision of an alternate) in the course of VH-NGA's final fateful flight, neither of these TAFs were relayed by either Auckland or Nadi:
  

And see transcript link:  http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx...2ffa885397

The significance of these omissions was brought fully to the attention of the RRAT Senate Committee PelAir Inquiry on the 19 Nov 2015: Transcript - Monday, 19 November 2012 - Aviation accident investigations
{Somewhat ironically both of these quotes come from Harfwit }

Senator XENOPHON: Can you explain that? I am just trying to get the context here. What are our international obligations in regard to the sharing of hazardous weather information with other air traffic service organisations?

Mr Harfield : We have a monitoring system where the Bureau of Meteorology obviously monitors a number of locations around Australia and within the jurisdiction of the airspace that we manage. When we get information provided that is of a differing nature from the forecast, such as a hazardous weather event or the SPECI information that you mentioned previously, that information is then sent to the control positions. It is then relayed to the particular aircraft based on certain parameters where the weather has changed. We call that a hazard alerting service. What we would do, for example, if an aircraft which had a terminal area forecast for Sydney was flying between Melbourne and Sydney and the weather conditions rapidly changed is issue a hazard alert and notify all aircraft going to that destination of the change in circumstances.

&..

CHAIR: We are not blaming you for the—

Mr Harfield : No, I understand. I just want to make sure that I am clear in what I am saying. The fact is that it was Fijian air traffic control that did not pass on the amended weather information, not New Zealand air traffic control. On the basis of what happened in the accident, that weather information was critical in the sense that if that bit of information was seen, the outcome may have been different. I am reluctant to say that the procedure is unsafe because I do not have the broader information on what is going on. Here was a piece of information that should have been passed to the aircraft which could have prevented this outcome.

&..

CHAIR: You are the bunnies. None of this affects you because there was nothing in the report upon which you have got to act, even though it is critical to the crash, perhaps. ATSB, for whatever reason, whether it is just to protect the bureaucracy or whether it was adjusted by CASA, which is a possibility, did not mention this critical factor of the nonreporting of the weather change, which leads to a very big question. Senator Fawcett?

Senator FAWCETT: The thing that the committee is struggling to come to is that there have been many witnesses who are pointing fingers of blame at particular incidents. Australia has been a leader in aviation safety for a number of years through its fairly robust adoption of a systems approach, and James Reason is the classic person who has driven that. So, clearly, the actions of the pilot in command and his decisions around flight planning and fuel have a role to play—so do the actions of the company in terms of their checks, training et cetera. But each slice of the Swiss cheese, as the James Reason bowl is often laid out, has the potential to prevent the accident. So the importance that the committee is placing on an incident such as a proactive alert to the pilot that there is now a hazardous situation is not the reason the accident occurred, but it is one of the defences that may well have prevented the accident. If Australia are to remain at the forefront of open, transparent and effective aviation safety then one of the roles of this committee is to make sure that our organisations collectively keep working towards having a very open discussion around that systems safety approach and making sure that each of those barriers is as effective as it can possibly be. That, I guess, is the intent behind a lot of the questioning this morning.

We see that, whatever else occurred, if the pilot had been made aware proactively about the hazardous situation that now existed then perhaps he would have made a different decision. Should he have been there in the first place? Should he have had more fuel? They are all other slices of cheese. We are concerned with this one. The thing we are really trying to establish is, if the ATSB report had had a recommendation that said, 'This was something that could have prevented the accident. Is it possible to have it put in place for the future?' then you would have taken action on that as a matter of course. Is that a correct assumption?

Mr Harfield : That is a correct assumption.

Senator FAWCETT: And without that recommendation being there it is a matter of some conjecture at the moment as to whether or not that would or would not have been raised at a future forum. Is that a fair assumption?

Mr Harfield : That is a fair assumption.

Senator FAWCETT: Under the current model, if ATSB come across in one of those slices of Swiss cheese in the recent model a question of whether or not existing legislation directed a pilot to make a decision that he had to divert if the weather minima went below alternate or landing minima, and they contacted the regulator and said, 'Hey, regulator, here is a critical safety issue' and they thrashed that through, do they have a similar mechanism where if they see another slice of Swiss cheese—that the pilot was not advised of this new hazard—do they come to you as the relevant body? Although it is not your rule set, you are the Australian point of contact to speak to regional players; do they come to you and say, 'We think there is an issue here, can we discuss this?' Did they come to you in this case?

Mr Harfield : In this case I do not recall and I do not think that they did. However, in other instances where things have occurred they have come to us to ask for assistance—for example, with some incidents that have happened in Indonesia.

CHAIR: But no-one cared about the prang off Norfolk Island?

Mr Harfield : That is not correct, Senator; I just do not recall the ATSB coming to us to ask us for assistance in this particular jurisdiction.

CHAIR: How long have you been at Airservices?

Mr Harfield : Nearly 25 years.

CHAIR: I think you need a change of career.

Senator FAWCETT: Can I clarify that if ATSB did come to you in the same way they came to CASA and said, 'Here is something that potentially could be a barrier to a future accident,' that would be a sufficient trigger for you to then take that on corporately and see what action you could take with your regional partners?

Ms Staib : Absolutely.

Senator FAWCETT: That is what we are trying to look at here—we are trying to ascertain what are the things that we can drive into the relationships between departments to make sure that we wrap up the system safety to the best extent possible

Ok so yet again there are for all intent & purposes still outstanding safety issues that are still to be proven to have been risk mitigated. No surprises there I guess, when it comes to Harfwit's mob & the Dolan led ATSB top-cover experts...

However given that the PelAir re-investigation & MH370 Annex 13 investigation is still ongoing, wouldn't now be a perfect opportunity to invite for input from the 'other' cross-jurisdictional FIR/ATC States involved in both accidents.

Annex 13 Chapter 5.23 allows for this scenario:

Rights

5.23 Any State which on request provides information, facilities or experts to the State conducting the investigation shall be entitled to appoint an accredited representative to participate in the investigation.

Note.— Any State that provides an operational base for field investigations or is involved in search and rescue or wreckage recovery operations may also be entitled to appoint an accredited representative to participate in the investigation.

      
With the VH-NGA investigation, both Fiji & NZ ATC service providers supplied ATC transcripts of all communications with the accident aircraft.

In the Fijian transcript, this was how the errant 0630 METAR relayed by NADI at 0801 UTC, was picked up by the 4 Corners program and ultimately led to the ATSB correcting their report:

GEOFF THOMSON: With good weather forecast, Dominic James headed to Norfolk Island with his fuel tanks 83 per cent full.

The first weather update for Norfolk comes from Air Traffic Control in Fiji.
It says there's some cloud over Norfolk island at 6,000 feet.
This is wrong.

MICK QUINN: In review when you look at the actual weather report that was issued, the actual cloud base was not at 6,000 feet. It was at 600 feet.

That indicates to Dominic, it reinforces his mental picture, that the forecast still is as it was, it's even better than what it was when he got the original forecast when he departed.

MARTIN DOLAN: That's not one that I am familiar with at the level of detail in the report so ...

GEOFF THOMPSON: So it might be a mistake.

MARTIN DOLAN: It, it may well be a mistake. I'll have to take a look at that.

GEOFF THOMSON: And he did.

Last Friday the ATSB acknowledged Dominic James received incorrect weather report from Fiji and changed its report.

   
IMO that is a good enough reason to include both Fiji & NZed in the re-investigation. And in the MH370 case the factual evidence in the interim report is evidence enough to include all regional ATC/FIR partners in the investigative/safety issue mitigation process..


MTF...P2  

[Gobbledock]

Team Beaker;

"Last Friday the ATSB acknowledged Dominic James received incorrect weather report from Fiji and changed its report"

Just another acknowledgement that they got many parts of the investigation wrong. The ATsB made a complete mess of the investigation and shot themselves in the foot many times over, including not retrieving the aircraft. What an embarrassment. And what a sham when both they and CAsA refused to believe a word that came out of Dom's mouth. The only thing the alphabet soup agencies care about is protecting themselves, their puppet masters and former political mates who now work in the aviation industry.

Peetwo;

"IMO that is a good enough reason to include both Fiji & NZed in the re-investigation. And in the MH370 case the factual evidence in the interim report is evidence enough to include all regional ATC/FIR partners in the investigative/safety issue mitigation process"

I couldn't agree more. The scope of the investigation wasn't broad enough, and the admission of error by the bearded buffoon
and his band of batty boys now means that two additional countries need to be brought into the re-investigation process.

MESSAGE TO BEAKER;

Dear Beaker, have you worked out on your abacus how much money it would've cost to originally retrieve the aircraft as part of the investigation vs how much it has cost to do it 7 years later plus re-open the investigation and cover old ground? And I wonder how much money was spent on or by the Canucks for their part in this malaise?
And you consider yourself to be the 'font of financial management', the alpha male of the abacus, the expert in money matters? You idiot, you have cost the taxpayer a hell of a lot of wasted money, fool.

TICK TOCK

[ventus45]

By the way guys, isn't the "Norfolk Island - PelAir - Westwind - Ditching Report Mk-2" now "oficially" overdue  ?

[Ziggy]

ventus45By the way guys, isn't the "Norfolk Island - PelAir - Westwind - Ditching Report Mk-2" now "oficially" overdue  ?

The Gestation of this report has been morphing and incubating for some time. Which is a dismal effort considering there were live witnesses. 

Maybe the contraction are starting, the pushing soon.

Then tears, joy, relief and fear will be the emotional soup of the day served when the Pel-Air report is released from the Almighty ATSB.

So, officially, the Pel-Air report is in Labor. So to speak.

No word yet. Not a peep.

The calm before the Storm...(which was not relayed to our Captain)

What scum would do this to their own. 
Personally, a wonderful person with integrity and so very smart. Saved our lives then was crucified.

Heard the news. Didn't get the forecast!
Satisfied yet.
Scums.
Ruining lives is just so easy for some.

Overdue.

For sure. Seven years and all the kerfuffle in between.

Bring it on.

Let us get on with our lives. in less than three years,  it will be a decade of our lives you have tampered with. 
Stop stealing honest, hard working people's time, thoughts and worth due to incompetence within your own selfish spaces.

Constitutional rights. 
That's right.
So, write.

Dig the red "overdue" Ventus   

 Ziggy

Release the report. Throw me far away from this unruly injustice system,
Set me free, for I have not wronged, Why survive, to witness truth resistance?

[Peetwo]

ASA the Empire of the RAeS cash cow - Happy trough-feeding for all

Jamie scooped this good news story, via SMH/AFR: 

Airservices to undertake 'unprecedented' freeze of charges to airlines


Date March 15, 2016

• (29)
  
• Read later
  

Jamie Freed
Senior Reporter


Airservices Australia costs had been increasing faster than revenue. Photo: James Davies

Airservices Australia has abandoned a five-year pricing proposal it put to airlines last year and will instead freeze its fees until July 2017 amid a cost-cutting drive by new chief executive Jason Harfield.

"It is unprecedented in the sense we are holding off putting a new pricing proposal making sure we are as efficient as we possibly can," he said. "The prices will stay as they are. We are going to suck it up. Realistically [a new deal] wouldn't come into effect until 1 July 2017."

The freeze in fees will benefit all domestic and international airlines, which are reliant on government-owned Airservices for air traffic control and airport firefighting services. Airservices collected $1.01 billion of revenue in financial year 2015.

The current pricing agreement expires on June 30. In August, Airservices had proposed a 5.3 per cent rise in the first year of the five-year deal, with a weighted average of 3.3 per cent over the life of the agreement.

Qantas Airways, the biggest client of Airservices, had said in a submission that it was "concerned" with the substantial price increase and cost impact of the proposal.

The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia, which represents international airlines flying to and from Australia, raised issues with Airservices spiralling cost base. Airservices enterprise bargaining agreements allowed for pay increases of 4 per cent a year, compared with the general Commonwealth public service offer of about 1.5 per cent a year.

Lower demand

Mr Harfield said Airservices' cost base had grown by 6 to 7 per cent a year because more resources were put into project management over the last few years at a time when revenue was flattening due to lower demand from the airlines.

He said the organisation would now focus far more on delivering the best financial outcomes for its customers.

"If I can cut the cost out of the organisation to reduce prices by 1 per cent I will save someone like the Qantas Group $4 million a year," he said. "If I adjust charges for a service that reduces fuel use by 1 per cent a year I will give them $40 million of value."

Mr Harfield said initiatives, such as requiring the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) tracking equipment on all instrument flight rules capable aircraft by February 2017 and the OneSKY Australia project that will combine civilian and military airspace management by 2021, would assist with fuel efficiency.

"ADS-B allows us to have surveillance across the entire continent where we haven't had it before," he said. "Instead of having 10 minutes between two airlines tracking between the same point we can bring it down to five miles and that becomes more efficient."

But while Mr Harfield said airline feedback would be taken into account when the next pricing deal was proposed, Airservices was not likely to end its policy of effectively subsidising smaller airports with fees paid from the big capital city airports.

"The international airlines say they should not be having the ability to cross-subsidise regional firefighting services because they don't fly there," he said. "But the problem we have is because of the 350,000 passenger requirement [for firefighting services], if we went to location-specific pricing, the price per tonne of that service would be unaffordable to those flying [to regional airports]."

This bit - "..The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia, which represents international airlines flying to and from Australia, raised issues with Airservices spiralling cost base. Airservices enterprise bargaining agreements allowed for pay increases of 4 per cent a year, compared with the general Commonwealth public service offer of about 1.5 per cent a year..."

One wonders if that is to placate the ATCO fraternity from uprising against Harfwit & his fellow Executive trough-feeders.   

Comment on the above from a high profile industry stakeholder:

Did everyone see the AFR yesterday that quoted ASA agreeing to 4% PA enterprise bargain pay increases when the public service average is 1.5% . Why? Because they were proposing to increases Charges 5.3% next year and 3 % thereafter. The ASA Acting CEO, Jason Harfield, was quoted in the article as having to retract the charge increases under pressure from the Airlines. Let’s see if he tears up the recent Enterprise Bargain excessive wage increases.  I bet the pay rises are set in stone. Very dumb commercially to increase your cost base and at the same time give up revenue increase unless you have plenty of meat on the bone. With 200 ground based aids closing he may have. The GA Industry was supposed to be compensated with these sorts of ASA Capex savings for ADSB installations if you believe the CASA RIS on ADSB.

Funny how News Corp weren't privy to this significant industry story -

Doesn't even rate a mention in today's 'that Man' article via the Oz

Concerns raised about Airservices Australia and OneSKY expenses

• Ean Higgins
  
• The Australian
  
• March 18, 2016 12:00AM
  

Reporter


An Airservices spokesperson said OneSKY was running to schedule.

Airservices Australia has spent considerable sums of money flying staff to France to discuss its $1.5 billion OneSKY program with the lead contractor, the Paris-based Thales aerospace group, despite Thales having a large operation in Australia to serve its customers here.

An Airservices insider revealed the trips to France to The Australian and claimed they were one example of profligate spending on the $1.5bn OneSKY project, which is designed to integrate the nation’s civilian and military air traffic control and navigation systems into a single state-of-the-art network.

An Airservices spokesperson said OneSKY was running to schedule for completion by 2021, and that “work currently undertaken is within the approved budget”.

Government-owned Airservices has come under scrutiny in a Senate committee over the past year for huge bonuses paid to its executives, and allegations of possible conflicts of interest in its dealings with a Canberra-based group called the International Centre for Complex Project Management.

It emerged that an ICCPM director who has since become its chairman, former RAAF officer Harry Bradford, had as of the middle of last year been paid more than $1 million by Airservices to negotiate on its behalf with Thales on OneSKY, over a period understood to be about 18 months.

The contractual dealings between Airservices and ICCPM over OneSKY are the subject of an investigation by the Australian National Audit Office, which is due to table its report to parliament in May.

Thales, according to its website, employs about 3200 people in more than 35 sites across Australia, and Thales Australia recorded revenues of $1bn in 2014.

The Airservices spokesperson would not say why it was necessary to fly Airservices executives to France for discussions when Thales had a very large subsidiary in Australia to serve myriad local clients.

Nor would it supply answers as to how many Airservices executives had travelled to France on how many occasions, by what class of air travel, which hotels they stayed at, or how much had been spent in all.

But in a statement to The Australian, Airservices said:

“Senior executives from Thales, Airservices and Defence meet, from time to time, as part of the negotiation process for the OneSKY Australia program. Meetings generally have taken place in Australia, and on occasion in France.

“All travel is undertaken in accordance with Airservices travel policy, which is consistent with the Australian government’s International Travel Policy with respect to class of airfare, hotels and incidental expenses.”

Airservices has progressively announced contracts with Thales, starting in February last year with agreement that it would develop the new system and start work orders in July that year.

Last month, it signed a contract with Thales for advanced work on software design assurance.

Recently appointed Airservices chief executive Jason Harfield had accountability for the “leadership, acquisition and delivery” of OneSKY as executive general manager of future service delivery for two years until August last year.

As revealed by The Australian last week, Airservices has appointed a senior figure in the Department of Defence, Air Vice Marshal Chris Deeble, to head the OneSKY project from here, reporting to Mr Harfield.

So Creedy is engaging with Fairfax but not his old stomping ground - how bizarre
MTF..P2
Ps On the now 2nd VH-NGA OVERDUE  Final..Final report, perhaps we could start an official O&O thread that captures all ASA, ATSB & CASA projects, investigations, response to recommendations etc that are overdue and evidently being obfuscated?   

Here is a perfect example from a true industry luminary on the progress of the ASRR : 

Regarding how many of the ASRR recommendations have been implemented, I can advise my score card is as follows.

Assessing the information tabled by Minister Truss in parliament in February, showing implementation status as at 31 December 2015, I assessed the following status.

CASA 29% implemented, 15% partially implemented and 56% not done

DEPT 20% implemented, 60% partially implemented and 20% not done

ATSB 33% implemented, 33% partially implemented and 33% not done.

This is being is benevolent as possible.  Other may have a harder view.  A number of those regarded as implemented will require ongoing monitoring to ensure change remains in place and/or that the culture has changed.

No matter how you view it, the implementation rate at CASA is poor, and indicates a lack of enthusiasm for change.   As advised to their Board in February 2015, many of the recommendations (more than 10)  are simple and low hanging fruit which could have been implemented within months.   Here we are 22 months after the report was presented to the Minister and 16 months after the Minister accepted most of the recommendations, with more than half the CASA recommendations not acquitted. 

[P7_TOM]

Oh! -  BOLLOCKS.

ASA - "It is unprecedented in the sense we are holding off putting a new pricing proposal making sure we are as efficient as we possibly can," he said. "The prices will stay as they are. We are going to suck it up. Realistically [a new deal] wouldn't come into effect until 1 July 2017."

What is unprecedented in the line of meaningless rhetoric, the electric blue clown spouts?  The plain simple fact is that ASA cost the airlines many millions more in holding and delays than almost any other cost imposed.  Moreover, that cost is un-quantifiable; the bean counters must just estimate an average delay costing, add ten percent (to be sure, to be sure) bung that onto the lowest average load level per sector and pass the cost along to their ‘guests’.

If Halfwit had any brains at all, he’d shut up about how wonderful he is; sucking it up and all, then get the system ‘match fit' to reduce delays and minimise holding.  Even at a lowly AUD$15,000 hour operating costs it does not take much delay to take the shine off any airline's bottom line if the punters get wise to the ‘added’ costs jack up.  How the hell Halfwit dare contemplate a cost increase when the ASA has been burning money like there is no tomorrow beats me.   If the ‘executive’ at ASA tightened it’s purse string, they could easily reduce their prices, not increase them.

Pure hypocrisy combined with testiculation – (talking Bollocks with hand gestures).  This clown wants us to believe his rule is 'unprecedented', which it probably is: by anything we've ever seen before.  A shambles turned into train wreck, gods spare us.

Physician, heal thyself.

I could add more, but I’m off for an ale with the lad; much to discuss.

[Gobbledock]

The ASA spin doctor said;

“All travel is undertaken in accordance with Airservices travel policy, which is consistent with the Australian government’s International Travel Policy with respect to class of airfare, hotels and incidental expenses.”

That's ok 'secret service spin doctor', I know you're shy so I'm happy to fill in the blanks for you as follows;

Air travel: All executive trough dwellers travel business class to gay Paris (and other destinations).

Accomodation: All executive trough dwellers  stay in 5 class accomodation.

Credit card: All executive trough dwellers take and use their corporate credit card and naturally have a field day racking up expensive 'business meeting dinners and luncheons'. Taxi's, limo's and other necessary expenses are also covered of course. (Except for perhaps Hoody's cost of hiring dungeons, buying toga outfits and mandatory penicillin injections!)

Daily allowance: All executive trough dwellers receive a few hundred dollars per day to cover any personal expenses incurred during their gay Paris 'working trip'.

Average cost: The average cost per trough dweller for one of these Ollie jollies overseas is around $20,000 per person on average for a 5-6 day trip. Oink oink!

No wonder when you take the above fiddles into account, executive salaries and bonuses, consulting jobs for mates, previous credit card fraud, questionable program spending and previous project budget blowouts you get to see the real picture as to why 'electric blue' is wary about putting up fees and charges too soon. There would be anarchy in the airline boardrooms and 'he who has a triple chin and achieved his life-long CEO dream' might find himself being 'thrown under the bus'.........

A follically challenged Harfwit;

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ssP21Cg3W-M

"Safe trough diving for all"

[Peetwo]

Dick Smith off the UP today :

OneSKY blow-out to $1.5 billion? - anonymous document

---

I’ve recently been sent an anonymous document – along with the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and lots of others – which claims there is “corruption and incompetence with management of the OneSKY project for Australian civilian and military air traffic control services”.

Among the dot points it mentions as follows;

• Look to the original tender and contract provisions and note how these are now diluted.
• Look to a Project in collapse before it has started in earnest.
• Look to the system that was evaluated, preferred, and this has regressed to one that has little discernible difference to the current ATC system. One that does not satisfy the next-generation requirements for Airservices Air Traffic control and does not support the current or future functionality of Military Air Traffic Control.
• Look to Millions of Dollars for barely-resembling the original bid.
• Look to the blow-out in cost, before the project even starts as rumoured to be of the order from $300M to $1.5B – achieved in months not years.
• Look to who were the people implicated, those responsible, the decision-makers, persons of influence.
• Look to process and illegitimate influence, probity breaches and benefits.
• Look to what the involved were then, where they are now and how they personally gained.
• Look to greed and corrupt activities.
• Look to breaches of Public Service Regulations and Civil Law.
• Look to the qualification of ICCPM as a not-for-profit organisation.

Anonymous documents are just that and really hard to know where the truth lies.

I ask the person who prepared the document that if you are genuine, why not contact me directly? Leave a message at the Dick Smith Foods office (you’ll find the number somewhere) and I’ll get back to you.

Very happy to treat any information confidentially as of course it’s really important that we don’t have another Super Seasprite disaster where $1.4 billion of hard earned tax payer’s money was lost.

Personally I’ve always found it difficult to believe that it’s possible to build a successful radar system that works satisfactorily for both civilian and military ATC.

Hmm...interesting timing
MTF...P2

[Peetwo]

Dick Smith off the UP today :

OneSKY blow-out to $1.5 billion? - anonymous document

---

I’ve recently been sent an anonymous document – along with the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and lots of others – which claims there is “corruption and incompetence with management of the OneSKY project for Australian civilian and military air traffic control services”.

Among the dot points it mentions as follows;

• Look to the original tender and contract provisions and note how these are now diluted.
• Look to a Project in collapse before it has started in earnest.
• Look to the system that was evaluated, preferred, and this has regressed to one that has little discernible difference to the current ATC system. One that does not satisfy the next-generation requirements for Airservices Air Traffic control and does not support the current or future functionality of Military Air Traffic Control.
• Look to Millions of Dollars for barely-resembling the original bid.
• Look to the blow-out in cost, before the project even starts as rumoured to be of the order from $300M to $1.5B – achieved in months not years.
• Look to who were the people implicated, those responsible, the decision-makers, persons of influence.
• Look to process and illegitimate influence, probity breaches and benefits.
• Look to what the involved were then, where they are now and how they personally gained.
• Look to greed and corrupt activities.
• Look to breaches of Public Service Regulations and Civil Law.
• Look to the qualification of ICCPM as a not-for-profit organisation.

Anonymous documents are just that and really hard to know where the truth lies.

I ask the person who prepared the document that if you are genuine, why not contact me directly? Leave a message at the Dick Smith Foods office (you’ll find the number somewhere) and I’ll get back to you.

Very happy to treat any information confidentially as of course it’s really important that we don’t have another Super Seasprite disaster where $1.4 billion of hard earned tax payer’s money was lost.

Personally I’ve always found it difficult to believe that it’s possible to build a successful radar system that works satisfactorily for both civilian and military ATC.

Match fit & ready to rumble - One of the favourite son's of the Empire of the RAeS gets a bio makeover, courtesy of Creepy - FFS!

Warning: The following ASA propaganda piece is guaranteed to bring on extreme bouts of nausea

One Vision

Posted on March 22, 2016

[/url] [url=http://www.airtrafficmanagement.net/2016/03/one-vision/#]7


Steve Creedy meets Airservices Australia’s new chief executive Jason Harfield, a man who came up through the ranks and is now leading a significant transformation of the company as well as a cutting-edge merger of Australia’s military and civilian air navigation programmes.


A small red book on Jason Harfield’s desk contains four quotes he says sum up the traits that have made him Airservices Australia’s first “home grown’’ chief executive and the man anointed to take the organisation through some of the biggest changes in its 20-year history. Quotes by Dublin-born statesman Edmund Burke, former US president Harry Truman and Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu speak to traditional leadership traits such as taking ownership of issues, team building and both short- and long-term planning. But it’s an anonymous quote noting it must have taken great courage to determine frogs legs were edible and observing  that “sometimes you have to come out of your of your  comfort zone” that may be particularly germane to where Airservices is heading.

After acting in the position since early August, the former air traffic controller comes to the job with a strong view the air navigation provider needs to get “match fit’’ and he is determined that airspace users will share the benefits of a more efficient and responsive organisation. This includes a transformation programme designed not just to address the company’s current weak profitability – its return on average equity was just 0.7 per cent in 2014-15 – but to position it for a viable future that includes the world-first marriage of civilian and military air traffic systems under the OneSKY project

The changes mean the air navigation provider is delaying putting its five-year, long-term pricing plan to the Competition and Consumer Commission until October and the introduction of the next pricing regime is expected to be deferred until 1 July, 2017. In the interim, Airservices officials are talking to the major parties about a bridging agreement that proposes a CPI increase for the 2016-17 financial year while management clarifies what cost cuts and efficiencies will be introduced as part of the transformation programme.

While no changes are without pain, Harfield, 45, believes they are necessary to allow Airservices to perform in a way that will allow it to maximise the benefits of OneSKY. “My view is that it needs to be proportionally to the same level and magnitude as what we have seen with the Qantas transformation,’’ he says. “And it’s really about not only addressing the current situation but positioning us for the future operating environment. That means getting us able to deliver, in particular, OneSKY while  continuing to adapt and provide the services that the industry needs and requires, not what we think it wants.’’

Pedigree
Harfield, who is married with a 12-year-old son, describes himself a curious person, determined to grow, learn and push himself. His qualifications include an Executive Master of Business Administration from Melbourne Business School (Mt Eliza), he completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors as well the Royal Aeronautical Society. But he is keenly aware that he needs to take the organisation with him, noting that Truman’s observation about what can be accomplished “if you don’t care who gets the credit” underscores the relationship between team work and success.

Success, he says, only comes from group accomplishments and he made building a united executive team with a coherent message one of his first priorities after becoming acting chief executive. “The signal to the organisation is we’re one organisation,’’ he says. “We’re not air traffic control, we’re not aviation rescue and fire-fighting, we’re not projects and engineering, we’re not corporate and industry affairs. We’ve just got to come together and continue to deliver.’’

Harfield’s lengthy tenure at Airservices means he is no stranger to tough issues and he is keen to repay the investment the organisation has made in his career. He also hopes his promotion will serve as a role model for others in Airservices operational areas. “Being someone who’s grown up in the organisation, I’m emotionally invested in the organisation,’’ he says. “So the success of the organisation — it’s not another job, it’s a passion. It’s been a big part of my life, in some ways the organisation’s a family so therefore you want it to succeed. You want to do it, you will drive it to succeed because it’s about the organisation. It’s not about the individuals.’’

One advantage of an Airservices career spanning 26 years , he observes, is knowing  the organisation “like the back of the hand’’ means he can identify which levers to pull and can do so quickly while judging  how it will affect other areas. “So if I want to go and work with our people in any part of the organisation to change how we do things, I’ll know where the ramifications are downstream, and that something won’t pop up in air traffic operations as result of making that change,’’ he says. “I know the upside and downside so no one can pull the wool over your eyes, particularly in having the safety background – something that is integral to our operations.’’

A quick overview of Harfield’s career charts how he built up the experience to make it to the top by dealing with what were often difficult situations. He remains an early starter and can be seen entering the Airservices’ Canberra headquarters before 7am.

Leadership
His interest in leadership issues began in high school as he added a fascination about US presidents to a desire to become a pilot and a love of the Star Wars franchise that has spawned a collection of memorabilia from the sci-fi blockbusters in his office. It was the Reagan-Gorbachev era and the Darwin teenager became curious about the way individuals, particularly US presidents, influenced and changed the world as well as their flaws, strengths and failings. “They are all different in personality and achievement,’’ he says. “To me, it’s fascinating.’’

Plans to join the RAAF were thwarted by myopia but he was able to turn his private pilot qualifications and long-held interest in aviation – a black dot in a silver framed photograph in his Canberra office turns out to be an image of the Cessna 172 that took him on his first flight as a toddler – towards the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which he joined in flight data officer in 1989. “As a kid I was always enamoured in aviation and wanted to be a pilot and involved,’’ he recalls. “Twists and turns and I ended up going down the air traffic control path and it was one of the things that was meant to be.’’
After gaining his air traffic controller’s licence at 20, the young Harfield worked initially in Adelaide but moved to Melbourne as he saw the writing on the wall with the move to consolidate to two centres under then revolutionary The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS).

He was sent back to Adelaide to get his ratings on positions there and transfer sectors to Melbourne, a process he repeated in Sydney during 1993 and 1994. By the time Airservices was created in 1995, he was back in Melbourne working on the previous Sydney sectors as a team leader.

The rise continued as Harfield became involved with what was initially Airspace 2000, where he headed the southern flight information region helped introduce Class E airspace between Ballina and Canberra. Airspace 2000 morphed into the controversial Class G airspace demonstration before it was shut down after a safety investigation, but the E airspace remained. “By that stage we were getting very close into TAAATS,  so I went across to Western Australia and brought back all the Perth sectors,’’ he says.

Harfield was now a group leader but still an operational controller when in 2000 he applied for a flight information region manager’s role and still remembers his last transmission to an Ansett A320 as an active air traffic controller in May of that year. “It was the last shift, it was about 8 o’clock at night, I was working the Perth inner sectors and my last transmission was ‘Hotel Yankee Delta roger continue descent to flight level 140’,’’ he recalls.

By 2002, he was head operations manager at the Melbourne Centre and the following year, on November 27, he became the head air traffic controller just as an ill-fated National Airspace System (NAS) reform known as NAS 2b was introduced. NAS 2b began to unravel after a serious incident involving a Virgin Blue Boeing 737 and Tobago over Launceston on Christmas Eve that year prompted a safety investigation which revealed flaws in the safety case underscoring the scheme.

Fallout
The subsequent fallout prompted top-level resignations and threw Harfield, as a newly-minted senior manager in charge of the air traffic control operating certificate and airspace regulation, into the thick of it. “We ended up working through that and dealing with a divided board and I think in that one year I got more experience in corporate governance than I probably would have in 15 years,’’ he says.

As the controversy subsided, Harfield was asked to join the executive team as general manager safety management with a brief to restore the faith in safety and risk management. “I was able to do that from an airspace perspective and that’s when I entered the executive in 2005 and did improve the safety management system and introduce a risk management system into the organisation,’’ he says.

By the end of 2007, however, Airservices faced an industrial campaign from air traffic controllers and then chief executive Greg Russell called on his skills to turnaround the air traffic control group as executive general manager. He started a reform programme that simplified work streams and over the next five-and-a-half years took the staff engagement score from 28 to 72 and more than halved staff absenteeism from 17 days to eight.

The staffing model was improved and made more efficient reducing the required number of operational controllers to around 900 and used the increased productivity to fund the 2012 enterprise bargaining agreement with controllers, the first time a back-to-back deal and the first time one had been reached without industrial trouble.“And that was all about engaging the controllers and delivering the change,’’ he says.

Harfield pitched for the chief executive’s job after Russell left but narrowly lost out to predecessor Margaret Staib. It was during her tenure that he moved to the newly-created role of executive general manager, future services delivery, responsible for leading the procurement and implementation of the new OneSKY traffic management platform.
He set about enhancing the relationship with the Department of Defence and ensuring that the team was ready for the tender evaluation. The new system will build on the Thales Group’s TopSky system, which features advanced monitoring and predictive capabilities that lend themselves to more flexible operating procedures such as user preferred routes.

The new chief executive does not believe the move is as big a jump as the introduction of its predecessor, The Australian Advanced Air Traffic System (TAAATS), which saw the switch from analogue to digital technology. “What we’re doing is we’re enhancing what we’ve got with better tools and functionality to be more efficient,’’ he says.

OneSKY
He is also “absolutely confident’’ OneSKY  will be delivered and operated as envisaged but  he concedes there will always be problems to solve in a world-first programme with no road map from previous projects to guide it. “Schedule is king and part of it is all to do with the fact that we’ve got two air traffic systems that are coming not only to end of life but if we’re also got to service the growth appropriately, we need to change,’’ he says.
“So we can’t stay in the current paradigm and our customers are wanting the benefits that are going to come from OneSKY.  So it’s actually an imperative for us to deliver on time and we know that there’s not an endless bucket of money. But everyone needs to understand that this is a program that is going to take five to 10 years to have it all fully transitioned. “The fact is that, with what I’ve called the heart and lung transplant, we‘ve got to transition from one to the other without skipping a beat and continuing to improve — and it’s a complex programme.’’

The programme has already courted some controversy and there have been pointed questions in Senate hearings about costs and procurement processes involving the International Centre for Complex Project Management. A review of the procedures by law firm Allens found the process was “adequate, robust, sound and consistent with market practice” and there had been no actual conflict of interest but agreed there was a possible perception of potential conflict.

Harfield says the air navigation provider took on board the lessons learned during TAAATS project and contends that robust probity and procurement processes mean “everything has been locked down to the nth degree’’. He believes it has nothing to fear from a review by the Australian National Audit Office or the Senate scrutiny. The project is also taking a new approach to avoid the problems that have plagued other big, untested projects that signed an acquisition contract on day one and discovered previously unforeseen problems five years into the project.

Instead, Airservices has opted for an advanced work supply agreement that concentrates on packages of work pulled out of would have been the acquisition contract and focusses on reducing risk. “We said we don’t want to sign up to an acquisition contract until we’ve got a contract that is not only executable but is commercially optimal for not only us and the Commonwealth [Defence], but also the supplier,’’ he says. “This is going to be a 25-year relationship and you don’t want to push the supplier into the ground… you’ve got to think over the long term. But also we don’t want to be paying more than we need to.’’
What this approach means, according to Harfield, is that problems that often crop up later in big contracts have been pulled forward and are being dealt with now. He adds:

“There are capability issues, there are scheduling issues and all that. And guess what? We’ve committed no more than about 5 per cent on what would be a billion dollar investment over the life of the programme. “And we’re dealing with the problems now without all the full financial commitments.’’

Delivery

After watching some of the problems plaguing his predecessors, Harfield knows that the Airservices capital programme will need to be deliverable, it will have to get a return on investment and it will need to deliver services that reduce delays as well as cater for growth.

He points to the company’s wider obligations to both its customers and the nation under the Air Services Act 1995 with its requirement to foster civil aviation both inside and outside Australia. “The work that we do is not just about providing a service,’’ he says “We need to do something that actually fosters and grows the industry and promotes it. Therefore, this is about moving us to being seen more as a value proposition rather than a transaction.’’

At the core of this, he contends, is delivering services in the most efficient and effective way. A “business diagnostic and efficiency review’’ is underway to see how Airservices can best cope with a flattening of revenue due to changes in aircraft utilisation and a reduction in resources industry traffic.

“An example I’ve used is that I can reduce costs in the organisation and let’s just say we can reduce prices by 1 per cent and save Qantas $4m a year in air navigation charges as a result,’’ he says. “But if I reallocated those costs to deliver a services such as the Airport Capacity Enhancement programme or flow management to reduce their fuel burn by 1 per cent per year, you’re saving them $40m a year.

“Cutting costs is efficient from a pricing perspective because it’s all about the cost base but at the end of the day we actually have to deliver something and it’s delivering the most efficient thing of value. It’s not just having the air traffic control service, it’s making sure that airspace users are being efficient from point A to point B so their own operating costs reduce.”

Hmm...one thing notable about the lengthy ( ) puff piece from Creepy, is that Harfwit (to his credit) has not come from the RAAF ranks. Other than that I guess Jase will not be impressed by what appears to be yet another bunch of disgruntled employee(s) trying to blow the whistle on him & his fellow executive trough dwellers:

I’ve recently been sent an anonymous document – along with the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and lots of others – which claims there is “corruption and incompetence with management of the OneSKY project for Australian civilian and military air traffic control services”.

 
Maybe another AFP referral is in the offing??

MTF...P2  

[Kharon]

Disappointing?

Seems Dick’s is not the only ‘anonymous’ letter surfacing.  The following arrived in the AP mail box a short while ago.  The legal eagle read it – as writ - turned a strange colour and gently pushed it back over the coffee shop table with the tip of his pencil, gently shook his head and changed the subject.  P6. a.k.a. Ping- ping, attempted to track the source, but the pathway from the originator to our post box was complex and beyond his humble skills.  So there I was, coffee cooling and looking at an untouchable, anonymous, untraceable email.  What to do?

I admit to shelving it: justifying the action by thinking that if the writer was serious, the full draft could be sent off to the Senate committee and examined in camera, under privilege.  I have no idea if this occurred.  

Anyway, long story short.  What we have is an unsigned, anonymous letter; it could have been written by anybody; containing untested, unsupported allegations, some libellous comments and many conclusions which may; or, may not be true.  If any of this is ever proven, through due process and proper testing, then it is a serious matter.  As it stands, it is simply suspect ‘gossip’ of a malicious nature.  I have destroyed the original, but retained the following de-identified version.  

My purpose in publishing the following version is the hope that the ‘writer’ will have the courage and fortitude to provide a signed version, with supporting documentation, to the appropriate authority.  Gossip of this nature detracts from the efforts of the Senators to get a handle on the true picture of what has really been occurring within the ASA organisation.  If it can be proven, then it may open the door to deep inquiry.  Should the tale be proven as unsubstantiated, scurrilous gossip, then ASA should have the opportunity to defend their actions, name and reputation.  

I would urge the ‘writer’ to come out from behind the screen of anonymity, contact one of the Senate standing committee, offer proof; or, retract the statements made.   I have little empathy, sympathy or even concern for the ‘management’ levels of ASA. But, fair is fair; and, ASA must be allowed to rebut accusations made.  So, if this is ‘dinkum’ let’s have the supporting evidence; or, stop sending anonymous, hearsay to those who cannot possibly assist in any way – except to call this for what it is; an unsubstantiated attack on ‘persons’. This rather than empirical evidence of a corporation acting in bad faith, is pointless.   Send that evidence and I’ll blast to the world; but remember, someone wrote a nasty, unsigned note to Heff; bad mistake (huge).  

Anyway FWIW here is a doctored version of our anonymous missive:-

Dear 123.

Where do I start? You have a choice to believe what I am about to tell you or not...frankly, I don't care but this is the facts.

I have been following your Blog particularly in relation to ‘Service’ and the incompetency of management, especially the credit card cover up. I know the whole story here and I am absolutely fed up with the lies and cover up.

The fact is a manager, and former colleague of mine who worked for the ‘Service’ for over 10 years was involved. Unfortunately,  he had a relationship with an internal lawyer.  This woman XX has a history!  She is alleged to have had an inappropriate relationship with the ex ‘Service’ Executive Manager YY, who eventually was forced to resign over expenses incurred directly in relation to providing for XX.  YY is married to a prominent ‘person’ ZZ.  XX and YY were caught by a number of ‘Service’ staff in a compromising position. As it was too sensitive, it was pushed under the carpet.

As a result of this, YY was forced to resign and the ‘Service’ management structure broke down. At the same time, XX was having another relationship with a ‘Service’ business support manager and a ‘Service’ manager from (City). The business support manager was forced to relocate from the ‘Service’.

My colleague made the biggest mistake of his life getting involved with this internal lawyer who is still practicing law in the company!

The (City) manager unfortunately purchased meals for XX during his stays at in Canberra. Meal allowance is allowed but only for the traveller. He made a mistake.

XX used the YY credit card on a number of occasions and even signed for meals at the (AA) where they would stay together when he was in Canberra.

When the ‘Service’ manager ended the relationship with her, she turned on him and advised management what he was doing. Of course, many lies were also told.

The ‘Service’ manager who was extremely remorseful lost his family as a result of his mistakes. He was terminated from ‘Service’ and his health deteriorated while the investigation was taking place. He was diagnosed with severe depression and spent more than a month in a psych hospital. He attempted suicide twice and is still suffering from this.

XX is still working for Airservices even though she was formally identified as a contributor to the misuse of the credit card. 

We have lost a very good manager and (Title). They were both manipulated by XX She is a practicing lawyer! She has committed fraud and the new (Management) knows exactly what went on...

If I were you I would try and obtain more information about this case. I have only scratched the surface. There is a lot more to this.

So why am I telling you this? This has been swept under the carpet...just like a number of other issues...Some of which has serious safety implications, particularly in ‘Service’. The ‘Service’ manager was threatened not to say anything or legal action would pursue. I have compassion for this man and what he lost over meal expenses and some taxi charges to XX home. The total amount was between $2000-3000 I believe over about two years.

XX is a big part of this. I have all the proof you need as the ‘Service’ manager who was involved has shown me signed receipts, emails (even emails between the ex (Title) and XX and many photos.  He is a shell of his former self and is still not employed...Some 8 months later and is always heavily medicated. I can’t believe the cover up and injustice here! He wanted to pay the amount back. This man has left a huge legacy in 'Service' with his involvement in many projects that improved our service. He won 2 major awards and in the end was spat out over $3000! I know what he did was wrong but there were more players involved. 

I’m sorry but I’d like to remain anonymous at this stage. I am happy to call you if you wish.

Toot - MTF? - toot...  ...No pot-shots please.  Just the messenger.

[Gobbledock]

Christ, and some of the punters I work with reckon Toga night at The Sportsman Bar Springhill is pretty full on! That's tame compared to all the rooting going on at ASA!

'Its good to be the king'

[Kharon]

“Does it really matter what these affectionate people do — so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses!”

Beatrice Campbell coined that phrase and up to a point, it’s furry muff.  But when the horses are startled, what to do?  Toga parties and other forms of amusement are fine provided they are not publicly funded, but improper use of ‘company’ funds in support of industrial scale impropriety is a no-no.  Management is implicated by tacit consent, the public defrauded, the organisations reputation tainted and if the auditors let it slip by, then they too have mucky paws.  So you see it’s not just a bit of executive stress relief after lunch in the Nevertell motel, that is the individuals business and certainly none of mine.  Scandals come and scandals go; been that way since the cave, however,……..when the inevitable tears and wailing begin; well, you can join those dots up for yourself.

Toot toot.