[Peetwo]

All HAIL the career bureaucrat - err maybe?   

Previously:

LMH on AOPA, cables and Comardy Capers -

Via the Yaffa yesterday :

The Last Minute Hitch: 9 June 2017

When Darren Chester announced last year that he was sending Shane Carmody into CASA until they could find a replacement for Mark Skidmore, the general aviation industry at large greeted the decision with muted mutterings of "not a bad decision." Indeed there were a few less-muted calls to just give him the damn job and be done with it. Carmody was considered a good operator who wore a white hat when it came to sensibility and efficiency. This week he was confirmed as the CEO and Director of Aviation Safety for the next five years, but already some industry commentators have switched sides based on Carmody's performance as Acting DAS. Part of that, I believe, is simply because GA in particular didn't get its preferred candidate, and part is because Carmody failed to press a magic switch at Aviation House that fixed everything instantly ... as if that was possible. Anyone who believes that there is an instant fix clearly doesn't understand depth of the mire in which CASA is entrenched. Even if he wore his underpants on the outside, Shane Carmody can't save the day simply by the act of arriving. This is a bureaucracy that hasn't completed a reform project after 29 years; you don't sort that out with a magic wand, you sort it out with hard work and a lot of personal perspiration. We are about to see exactly how close Carmody is prepared to put his nose to the grindstone, and as an aviation community it is our job to make sure he knows where the grindstone is...

& via Chester's popular thread...

..The miniscule’s last move came on the very last tick of the time clock; he has brought the Queens castle into the game; in the guise of a newly anointed director of aviation safety (silly name) or; boss CASA, the erstwhile Carmody. The popular ‘Australian Flying’ magazine asset ‘Hitch’ has penned another balanced, sensible comment on this appointment which is worth the time to read. Indeed, the article should, if matters aeronautical were ‘normal’, mark the end of the topic. Regrettably, this is not the case...

The miniscule has now put in place on the AOC (aviation obfuscation chessboard) what he obviously believes is an effective (smoke) screen of Muppet chess pieces - Harfwit, High viz Hoody & Comardy capers...  

Perhaps it is time to highlight what in fact 6D has now put at stake in his blind faith that his Muppet minions (2 pawns & a castle), will be able to obfuscate the potential A-word embarrassments for a further two years in the King's court...

Quoting Comardy's miniscule swearing of allegiance at Senate Estimates:

Mr Carmody : No, I do not take into account the retail sector, but the statement of expectations from my minister is very clear:

… focus on aviation safety as the highest priority …

…   …   …

… consider the economic and cost impact on individuals, businesses and the community in the development and finalisation of new— regulations and regulatory changes.

CHAIR: Yes.

Mr Carmody : And take 'a pragmatic, practical and proportionate approach to regulation as it applies' to different industry sectors. I am fulfilling that mandate.

 
Quoting further from the 6D FF decree to which CC (above) says he will comply:

4.        Key Aviation Initiatives
I expect CASA, in conducting its responsibilities as the aviation safety regulator, to have regard to the following key aviation initiatives:

(a)   changes taking place in relation to air traffic services, including Airservices Australia’s (Airservices) new operating model and the transition to a new air traffic management system under the OneSKY Project;

Q/ So have we established, beyond reasonable doubt, that CC (Comardy Capers) is the miniscule's Muppet?;

..or is it as "K" alludes in the SBG - if push comes to shove :  

This hapless minister needs to disavow, immediately, the notion that Mrdak, the department, Carmody or Aleck are there to keep him squeaky clean. They will, without any hesitation, throw him under the first bus which challenges the status quo. Ask John Sharp, he'll tell you - that and more.



“ Nations thus tempted to interfere are not always able to resist the counsels of seeming expediency and ungenerous ambition, although measures adopted under such influences seldom fail to be unfortunate and injurious to those adopting them”. Lincoln.

To put it another way, is CC merely a bureaucratic footstool appointed by the government to filter out all the unwanted white noise emanating from the IOS; or is he actually a sleeper but crucial member of the FF 'Iron Ring'??

Leadsled off the UP seems to be of the opinion that CC is the real deal 'ministerial (yes Minister) bureaucrat':

Folks,

Now that Shane Carmody has been confirmed in the job, at least let us hope he gets on with the job, putting substance to the comments he has made so far.

He is up against it, as I hear he has already had the "Iron Ring", present iteration, blocking him doing some of the things he wanted/tried to do as "Acting".

Top of the list simply must be injecting some rational risk management into all CASA activities --- starting off with medical standards --- we have a "driver's license" medical that isn't, for the RPL, and the travesty of what has been done on Colour Vision should be immediately reversed, and the AAT decision that served us so well for so many years, become the standard again.

There is no reason (and the "CASA Kultcha" is not a reason) why we have to have medical standards that are so much tougher than USA, and long standing reforms reversed.

Even at this stage, it is not too late to bring the "ADS-B" mandate into line with risk management criteria, and have a mandate more in line with USA/EU, preferable even more limited, given the very limited traffic in the greater volume of airspace than US or western Europe. ---- and "being fair" to all the poor sods who have already spent millions is not a reason to maintain the present mandate.

Unfortunately a non-aviation CEO/DAS needs expert input for his decision making, and I see evidence that such genuine (as opposed to self-confessed) expertise is pretty thin on the ground ---- with the possible exception of obtaining draconian judgements in cases of trivial regulatory infringements.

Tootle pip!!

  
Personally I am a little suspect to why a career bureaucrat on the up could possibly want a possible poisoned chalice like the FF CEO position...  

However I have no real opinion at this point in time but I do feel (like LS) that CC needs to hit the ground running...

 MTF...P2

PS Having been tasked to hunt around in the CC skeleton closet by the BRB, one thing I find a little odd on the  MR 'career highlights' is that after Byron was given the boot (Feb 2009), that for five months CC apparently held two jobs?

June 2009 – June 2014 Deputy President of the Repatriation Commission; member Military, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission

October 2006 – October 2009 Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Civil Aviation Safety Authority

  
Yet when you refer to the June 2009 CASA Org chart - see HERE - it would appear that CC's position was waiting to be filled (2nd row 1st blue box LHS)

Oh well maybe it is a typo...