Begin at the beginning.
“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
Part 1: Estimates Monday Feb, 26, 2018.
It was now many, many years ago when a very young ‘K’ was learning the tricks of the climbing trade at an outward bound camp that a fairly silly, probably dangerous game was developed; but it seemed like great fun at the time, bumps, bruises and cuts accepted as routine. We had an instructor who believed military type obstacle courses were part of our essential learning. Only his in his version, we were paired off and ‘roped’ together, to learn how to manage ‘as a team’. ‘We’ took this a little further (after hours) and turned it into a ‘thee legged race’ combined with ‘blind mans bluff’, it was hilarious to watch and jolly difficult to do. You had one leg tied to your mates just above the ankle, the blindfolds put in place and you listened to the directions of the rest, while trying to beat the obstacle course time record. As said great fun; just a bunch of kids playing at silly buggers, nothing to loose except some skin and a little pride. Not so for a Senate committee, playing for keeps.
I mention this as the only way I can think of to illustrate and summarise the ‘performance’ of the Senate team at last Monday’s Estimates. The performance reminded me of my very first run at ‘our version’ of the obstacle course game. Blind, hobbled and NDI. The only difference is they were not playing for fun; it was a deadly serious, neck or nothing race. The results have raised many questions and much anger within the BRB and IOS. I have now watched the entire ATSB and CASA sessions; twice. Thrice even; if you count the original session which kept me close to the bucket. I digress.
I have also managed a long chat with P7, who, as mentioned previously, made the pilgrimage to Canberra, ostensibly to assist brief the SEC on the second Pel-Air report. It is his opinion that this is the point where the seeds of Monday’s debacle were sown, he believes by O’Sullivan.
There had been a serious amount of work put into the Pel-Air ‘briefing’ research - condensed and refined into a neat ten page pile. – All valid; just not presented. “Why not”? you ask. “No point” rasps TOM – when I asked. He went on to explain that in his opinion, O’Sullivan was simply not interested in Pel-Air and was dismissive of any statement made without ‘written’ iron clad evidence supporting even the introductory part of the ‘briefing’. When Pel-Air did get a mention, the discourse was interrupted by O’Sullivan and the team were never really allowed to get ‘in stride’. Certainly the Pel-Air briefing was never delivered. “Wasted time, effort and money” say’s TOM, as the first pint vanished before my eyes; “estimates will be a fiasco”. We all waited for Monday’s session – I now owe P7 many more pints; spot on call.
The serious student will need to suffer through the whole video series a few times. On the first viewing, concentrate only on the O’Sullivan performance. Put the ATSB session aside for later this week, watch the O’Sullivan during the CASA session. The PAIN network has.
Opinions as to motive are divided; but, three important questions begging answers remain:-
1) Why did O’Sullivan persist in interrupting and taking over Rex Patricks line of questioning? Every time Patrick attempted to develop an argument O’Sullivan disrupted and diverted. Actively preventing examination and; importantly, expansion of valid points. The only saving grace is that Patrick managed to get it all ‘on-the-record’. Well done that man.
2) Given the O’Sullivan predisposition for ‘evidence’ one must question why this was not applied to both ATSB and CASA. Particularly to CASA. O’Sullivan allowed some highly suspect answers to slip by, without demanding the ‘supporting evidence’. Had he done so then some of the more outrageous ‘stretched’ truth could have been clinically disseminated. Alas.
3) Given the O’Sullivan oft stated claims to being a police officer, insurance investigator and crack accident investigator; one has to ask, where were those ‘skills’ last Monday?
Ask any farmer what he’d do discovering a bunch of foxes in his chook shed. D’ya reckon he’d open the door to let ‘em out and give 'em one for the road as he waived ‘em a fond goodbye. Yeah, right, sure he would.
Well children, we shall simply have to buckle down and do O’Sullivan’s work for him, discover the facts and blast every faery story told last Monday. Perhaps someone, somewhere, one fine day will change something for the better– maybe, perhaps.
We shall begin at the beginning, the ATSB obfuscation next up, for that was almost as slippery as the CASA spun yarn.
And so we begin. Hopefully my ‘sensa'umour’ will return during the process.
Toot-MTF -toot.
“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”
Part 1: Estimates Monday Feb, 26, 2018.
It was now many, many years ago when a very young ‘K’ was learning the tricks of the climbing trade at an outward bound camp that a fairly silly, probably dangerous game was developed; but it seemed like great fun at the time, bumps, bruises and cuts accepted as routine. We had an instructor who believed military type obstacle courses were part of our essential learning. Only his in his version, we were paired off and ‘roped’ together, to learn how to manage ‘as a team’. ‘We’ took this a little further (after hours) and turned it into a ‘thee legged race’ combined with ‘blind mans bluff’, it was hilarious to watch and jolly difficult to do. You had one leg tied to your mates just above the ankle, the blindfolds put in place and you listened to the directions of the rest, while trying to beat the obstacle course time record. As said great fun; just a bunch of kids playing at silly buggers, nothing to loose except some skin and a little pride. Not so for a Senate committee, playing for keeps.
I mention this as the only way I can think of to illustrate and summarise the ‘performance’ of the Senate team at last Monday’s Estimates. The performance reminded me of my very first run at ‘our version’ of the obstacle course game. Blind, hobbled and NDI. The only difference is they were not playing for fun; it was a deadly serious, neck or nothing race. The results have raised many questions and much anger within the BRB and IOS. I have now watched the entire ATSB and CASA sessions; twice. Thrice even; if you count the original session which kept me close to the bucket. I digress.
I have also managed a long chat with P7, who, as mentioned previously, made the pilgrimage to Canberra, ostensibly to assist brief the SEC on the second Pel-Air report. It is his opinion that this is the point where the seeds of Monday’s debacle were sown, he believes by O’Sullivan.
There had been a serious amount of work put into the Pel-Air ‘briefing’ research - condensed and refined into a neat ten page pile. – All valid; just not presented. “Why not”? you ask. “No point” rasps TOM – when I asked. He went on to explain that in his opinion, O’Sullivan was simply not interested in Pel-Air and was dismissive of any statement made without ‘written’ iron clad evidence supporting even the introductory part of the ‘briefing’. When Pel-Air did get a mention, the discourse was interrupted by O’Sullivan and the team were never really allowed to get ‘in stride’. Certainly the Pel-Air briefing was never delivered. “Wasted time, effort and money” say’s TOM, as the first pint vanished before my eyes; “estimates will be a fiasco”. We all waited for Monday’s session – I now owe P7 many more pints; spot on call.
The serious student will need to suffer through the whole video series a few times. On the first viewing, concentrate only on the O’Sullivan performance. Put the ATSB session aside for later this week, watch the O’Sullivan during the CASA session. The PAIN network has.
Opinions as to motive are divided; but, three important questions begging answers remain:-
1) Why did O’Sullivan persist in interrupting and taking over Rex Patricks line of questioning? Every time Patrick attempted to develop an argument O’Sullivan disrupted and diverted. Actively preventing examination and; importantly, expansion of valid points. The only saving grace is that Patrick managed to get it all ‘on-the-record’. Well done that man.
2) Given the O’Sullivan predisposition for ‘evidence’ one must question why this was not applied to both ATSB and CASA. Particularly to CASA. O’Sullivan allowed some highly suspect answers to slip by, without demanding the ‘supporting evidence’. Had he done so then some of the more outrageous ‘stretched’ truth could have been clinically disseminated. Alas.
3) Given the O’Sullivan oft stated claims to being a police officer, insurance investigator and crack accident investigator; one has to ask, where were those ‘skills’ last Monday?
Ask any farmer what he’d do discovering a bunch of foxes in his chook shed. D’ya reckon he’d open the door to let ‘em out and give 'em one for the road as he waived ‘em a fond goodbye. Yeah, right, sure he would.
Well children, we shall simply have to buckle down and do O’Sullivan’s work for him, discover the facts and blast every faery story told last Monday. Perhaps someone, somewhere, one fine day will change something for the better– maybe, perhaps.
We shall begin at the beginning, the ATSB obfuscation next up, for that was almost as slippery as the CASA spun yarn.
And so we begin. Hopefully my ‘sensa'umour’ will return during the process.
Toot-MTF -toot.