[Peetwo]

DJ embuggerance update: 14/11/2017

CASA continue to take the Mickey Bliss on CAA & FOI Act -

Kaz Casey - - has picked out a couple of relevant quotes from the IronBar book on legal weasel word confectionary (ie Aviation Law in Australia):

Quoting the 'Aviation Law Guru" Mr Ronald I C Bartsch from his book, Aviation Law in Australia (only Aviation Law book in Oz)...with the forward by no other than Mr Jono Aleck. How very bloody convenient. 

"The purpose of introducing these statutes relating to administrative bodies was to make the government more responsible to the people they were elected to serve. The underlying philosophy being that if decision-makers are held more accountable for their decisions then the "quality" of the overall decision-maker process should improve. To this end the enactments appear to have been a success." - I would suggest if you were in Dom's shoes, "accountability" and "quality" would come a distant 2nd last and last on descriptors for the nearly 8 yr embuggerance inflicted upon him by the CASA Sydney basin regional office - P2

I know, I know, he is talking out of his arse & teaching this shite in University. Might go to his next lecture, take a seat while he is wobbling his big head in front of his law students & ask a few questions, nice & LOUD.

Then regarding the FOI process, he states..

"The FOI Act 1982 creates a legally enforceable right of public access to documents in the possession of Commonwealth Ministers and authorities....Although there are some 18 grounds for exemption from release, the FOI Act is biased in favour of release. The intent of the Act is that, even if there is an applicable exemption, there should be release if at all possible unless to do so would create an unreasonable diversion of the resources of the agency to which the request has been made. There are specific provisions that prevent the disclosure of information relating to aviation accidents and incidents within the aviation regulations."

....Yeeeeah right.

Their job at the FOI department is too, well, um, process FOI's. Included in their budgets...

This statement...

"..there should be release if at all possible unless to do so would create an unreasonable diversion of the resources of the agency to which the request has been made.."

...has been in goodwill and somewhat informally embraced by the CASA FOI Officer David Gobbitt in his response to the DJ request's for information (reference: Carmody - Just Culture, Just’a Smokescreen.).

However as of 5 days ago DG has suddenly gone all formal on DJ's latest request for further information: Letter to Dominic James - sent 9-Nov-17-4

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WOW! 390 documents and 11,000 pages for an enforcement file that I thought had been closed ever since DJ received the dodgy and ill-informed Hood 'notice of suspension' 24 December 2009 decision letter (note the EF No. at the top of the page): http://www.auntypru.com/forum/attachment.php?aid=377

It was my understanding that everything that followed (up till today) on the DJ embuggerance was then filed under CASA file ref: EF10/496...

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E.g.

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Q/ Regardless of the nearly 8 year embuggerance of DJ, it beggars belief that there is 390 documents and 11,000 pages on one file, for what is essentially a minor pilot CEP (co-ordinated enforcement process). One wonders how much time, money and human resources would be expended on an enforcement action against a large major airline? - UDB!
Hansard quote:

Senator XENOPHON: It is a sensitive issue. The standard form recommendation, as I understand it, is a document relating to adding references to a flight crew licence condition. Is that right?

Mr Carmody : In reality it's a recommendation that might have many functions. It's a way of combining information to a decision-maker like me, a recommendation for us to take a particular course of action. So it might not be licensing; it could be anything.

Senator XENOPHON: Sure, but the normal course is that for the document to be a valid document, it ought to be a signed document—is that right?

Mr Carmody : Yes, that would be reasonable.

     
Q/ Coming back to the Gobbitt decision letter, one wonders why he didn't at least release the SFR, that is legally required to be forwarded to and signed by a CASA delegate assigned with the carriage of making an individual enforcement decision, that should have accompanied the Greg Hood original (24 December 2009) decision to suspend the DJ FCL?
 
MTF? - Definitely...P2