[Peetwo]

More aggrieved than angry (I think).

Challenge dichotomy, is diremption or bifurcated not appropriate?  There was certainly a split, to the advantage of Australian shipping.  The Bullock and Sterle statement certainly carried some weight and understanding; even the Greens managed to impress; and something is going to change – for once – for the betterment of an industry.  Stellar.    

You can with some ease, swap shipping for aviation and the results are startlingly accurate; the impact of bad legislation clearly visible and the simple, powerful solutions easily understood – Hell, even the Greens could see it – for shipping.

The need for investment which returns a profit, which creates jobs and revenue is essential to all business; so why is aviation thrown to the wolves?

A private members bill to change an Act is needed; the rest has been mapped out in the government sponsored Forsyth report – the Senators all sat through the disgraceful Pel-Air inquiry, they are fully aware of the problems and of the urgent need for immediate changes. Hell, they even made some speeches full of sound and fury; which inspired the belief that with a sane DAS a new ATSB commissioner and a the rubble scraped away from the ASA the industry could be returned to health.  What happened? – SFA that’s what.  Oh we got the three stooges and more pony-pooh to shovel, but little of a practical nature or any intrinsic value.

Unless you want to count the latest regulations as progress or rampant duplicity as reform.    CASA are now making grandiose ‘statements’ on how they are dealing with regulatory transgression in an enlightened manner.  This means that instead of the tumbrils heading to the guillotine in broad daylight, they now creep along the back alleys, under the cover of darkness.

Has the Senate Committee been rolled, Wodgered and pineappled?   Perhaps they could ask an expert like Fawcett – but I forget; he forgot.  One happy snap, round of smiles and hearty hand shakes, exeunt stage right and it’s onwards and upwards.  Leaving a trail of disappointment in it’s wake, the bus of hope fails to stop leaving the passengers stranded wondering WTF.

So, my QoN to the Senators - WTF?  Heroics and positive action for shipping – SFA for aviation, is that it?   Certainly seems that way.

Aye, no doubt I'll wait quite a long wait for an answer.

Toot. 

The game of politics is a complex beast at many levels, way too heavy to discuss this time of morning. But one of the problems for us in aviation, an ironic problem at that  is aviation, in a sometimes perverse sort of a way grabs lots of attention. Now attention can be a good thing when managed correctly, but if not then you have a real problem.

You see two cargo ships can rub paint in Botonay bay without so much as a whisper raised. An international investigation could reveal that our cattle being shipped overseas are of a sub-standard quality compared to the rest of the worlds cattle and hardly a whisper will flow through the media. However should a parked Cessna being gently blown into a security perimeter fence during a thunderstorm then it is splashed across every front page! So what I am saying is that many ministerial portfolios generally fly beneath the radar plus they don't directly impact tens of thousands of lives daily, generally speaking. But aviation is much much different. So when you have a high risk area of oversight it requires the correct resources, funds and
Ministers and minions who have the appropriate skills, power of reason, intelligence and grass roots to handle such a portfolio. Australia has sadly been let down in this regard for decades. The level of obsfucation and disconnect from Team MrDak for many many years is not only breathtaking, as evidenced in their continued folly in not only the senate, but as evidenced in the type of character and department heads that has been respectively sanctioned and appointed to lead the alphabet soup agencies, and the resulting organisational poor cultures and the ineptitude of their staff.

Yes, a spectacular failure, billions in prospective revenue and income lost, an overall industry shattered and in itself lost, hundreds of millions wasted on reform program's and many other dismal project failures. Ironically the fixes ARE out there, but those fixes will never be embraced whilst you have a poisonous toxic framework.

Tick tock. Smoking holes wait for nobody Miniscule. Tick tock

For those interested here is the program for Estimates on Monday..






The usual suspects are on from 14:45 so it will be largely a tea & biccys session. However given this - "there was a movement at the RED House, for the word had got around.." 

Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (15:04): I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

"..It is a critical principle in a responsible system of government that the parliament on behalf of the people can ask questions of the executive and that such questions be answered in a reasonable time frame, and, in accordance with standing order 74, I have moved this motion.."

A number of questions have been asked since July of this year about the competitive evaluation process for the SEA 1000 system in relation to combat systems and technical commands and control systems...

...These are matters that ought to be answered under standing order 74.

I know it was short notice, but I did give advance notice to the acting minister's office in respect of this. The issue is that we have Senate estimates coming up. As a courtesy, I did write to the Minister for Defence's office and the Prime Minister office yesterday to give notice of this situation so that this motion could be obviated. If there is some undertaking from the government to give an answer or answers prior to Senate estimates commencing, that would be very helpful in the context of what this standing order is meant to enforce.

- it could also be worthwhile watching the start of proceedings...

MTF..P2