[Kharon]

The rooted cause:

and the continuing effects of the quick cure being worse (in the long term) than the disease.

There are thousands upon thousands of words written related to 'Root Cause Analysis'; Circular argument; Cause and effect; and, many, many other biproducts of these worthy treatise. Well, there are.

Now then, Air Services Australia (ASA) have many (aka. Lots of) very serious problems (Aye, challenges - if you must). There exists a multitude of sound, obvious reasons why 'they' should address these, with some haste. But how? That is the big, serious question; ain't it?

Put aside the eternal need to keep the incumbent minister and the DoIT out of the morass, ignore the many academic and scientific methods available and the expensive folks who 'can do' the research and draft the 'paper'. Let's get down to 'brass tacks'.

That the entire ATC system is a world class cluster of ducks is a given. Ironically, those who created the mess and should no longer be there to create even more mess; are the ones anointed to 'fix it'. Think about it – can you imagine the upheaval should the government admitted to an expensive, flawed, toxic, second world air traffic system, being run on the fumes left behind after the executive level had finished ensuring their well being; or that financial brain farts had ensured the inevitable (forecast) result we see today. Can you contemplate the ramifications if the public ever discovered that there was much more concern with fine line 'legal' abrogation than to ensuring an efficient, first world system to prevent the unthinkable possibility of two loaded aircraft colliding?

That however is not the resident evil, scratch off the glossy top cover and study where the real liability resides; the parts that elegantly and eloquently remove minister, department and management from any and all responsibility. Oh, its there. No long bow drawn. The blame will be sheeted home to the ATCO and flight crew. No expense will be spared to prove, beyond reasonable doubt (and insurance pay-out) that the government, ASA management and the system was in no way at fault.

It is about time the pettifogging stopped running the show; very real problems exist; the risk involved in persisting with the current 'normalised deviance' exponentially increases every day. Expecting the people who deliberately created the current unacceptably low safety standards cannot and must not be allowed further free reign and top cover to plaster over the dangerous (potentially lethal) cracks in the foundations. What say you minister and DoIT head about the situation? What will you say should these chickens ever come home to roost...Tick tock...

Toot – toot.