[Kharon]

CG - Check your PM.  Let me answer your question – with a question. Pretend you are a ‘tin-kicker’ a qualified, trained professional with integrity. Then, one day when you are investigating a nasty fatal, accident you are provided with evidence which is part of a causal chain. Say that evidence, in report form, had been provided a twelve month prior to the accident – warning that this accident was inevitable unless things changed. Let’s say you subpoena that report and then get told to bury it – then what would you do?

Pretend that sort of thing happened to you personally a couple of times and over a beer with a colleague or two you discovered that they too had been ‘talked to’. Then what?

Or, suppose you wrote a very good, in depth report into an accident which ended up in front of a Senate committee and found that the report was played down? Then what?

Many believe that ASA, ATSB and the CASA should report and be directly responsible to the Senate. Of all the three agencies, the ATSB is of crucial importance. Accidents happen, how to prevent a reoccurrence is of great importance; how else are we to reduce the accident rate?

ATSB is shadow of its former self; been in decline for years and still leading the race to the bottom. No matter a Hi-Viz vest is the solution to safety matters – unless you live and work in France; where a ‘courage’ wrist strap may protect you. Right?