[Peetwo]

ASA in the real world??- God forbid!

Well enough of multi-national corporations their gluttony, incest & government bribery tales - err..for now maybe??
Since the Hansard release is still-- -- strangely delayed, we will have to continue with the picture record...

Top of the 1st Act we had A/CEO JH still (at that stage) full of bullshite & bluster head to head with, a sometimes bumbling, Senator Bullock...   

Ding!   First choc frog for Joe I reckon but key for the Tim-tam cupboard for NX, for quietly ensuring a vital cog of the evidence chain will now be forth coming...

That youtube vid also perfectly lines us up for the latest News Corp coverage of the ASA trough feeders inquisition. And with another development it looks like this potentially embarrassing stand off has now escalated to the attention of the PMC - err TICK...TOCK Minister.. :

Let Airservices Australia feel heat of competition: Maurice Newman  

• by: ANNABEL HEPWORTH
  
• From: The Australian
  
• August 22, 2015 12:00AM
  

National Business Correspondent
Sydney

Tony Abbott’s top business ­adviser says the government should consider exposing key functions of Airservices Australia to compet­ition. Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business ­Advisory Council and a former ASX and ABC chairman, said greater competition was “an area that governments should consider very seriously”.  

He noted that Britain’s air traffic control was now operated via a public-private partnership in which the government owns a 49 per cent stake. “If anything could be done to free up or make more efficient Australia’s transportation, be it in the air or coastal shipping, it’s something to be ­considered and, if found to be plausible or reasonable, be implemented,” Mr Newman said.

“I think anything which leads to greater efficiency in transport­ation, anything that makes us more competitive internationally, has got to be looked at.”

Investment bankers have pitched the idea, while businessman and aviator Dick Smith told a Senate committee this week that Airservices’ functions of rescue, firefighting and air traffic control should be opened up to competition. Airservices is a government-owned monopoly provider of air traffic control and aviation firefighting and rescue.

“The problem with Airservices is, it’s the reason the Soviet Union collapsed,” Mr Smith told the ­inquiry. He said “all of the air traffic control towers could be opened to competition”, and was critical that aviation rescue and firefighting services here were run as a government-owned monopoly.

“The problem with Airservices is, it’s the reason the Soviet Union collapsed,”

Mr Smith has been arguing for fire crews at regional airports without control towers to man the Unicom radio to provide pilots with air traffic and weather information, though Airservices chairman Angus Houston has said the focus should be on readiness to respond.

The office of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Warren Truss said the government had no plans to privatise Airservices and noted that its primary function was air safety. Rescue and firefighting staff “need to be able to respond within time-critical deadlines to safety incidents”, his spokesman said.

Also, air traffic control functions operate as an integrated national network and if this is split into separate entities, it has “potentially adverse safety, ­efficiency and ­operational impacts”.

A draft policy review of the ­requirement for aviation rescue and firefighting services at Australian airports is due before the end of the year. United Firefighters Union Australia national secretary Peter Marshall warned privatisation could pose a clear conflict between shareholder interests and public safety, which could be a “recipe for disaster”.

Nevertheless, the ­National Commission of Audit said there was potential to outsource some of Airservices’ activities. The Productivity Commission last year recommended a government scoping study into the merits of privatising some or all of Airser­vices’ business activities.

“Reforms of previous governments have ensured Airservices Australia is a pure service provider and undertakes no safety regulatory functions — indeed it must hold licences from the air safety regulator,’’ the report stated. “It is common in Europe for aviation fire and rescue services and air traffic control around airports to be provided by individual airport operators or their contractors.”

  
"..Warren Truss said the government had no plans to privatise Airservices and noted that its primary function was air safety. Rescue and firefighting staff “need to be able to respond within time-critical deadlines to safety incidents”, his spokesman said.."

Umm...Minister once again I don't think your Mandarin, minders & minions are doing you any favours..

MTF...P2