Culture Change

Vindicating critics, review paints CASA as out of step, out of touch; recommends broad changes

For years, industry critics of Australia’s air safety regulator have pointed to hard-line statements by CASA director John McCormick during the opening months of his tenure in 2009. As McCormick vowed to make CASA an enforcementoriented regulator with “a capital R”, members of the industry recoiled, and for many, those statements have come to symbolise what they see as a combative and out-of-touch watchdog under McCormick’s leadership.

With McCormick set to depart in August, CASA critics have seen their hopes for a new direction at the agency buoyed by the release of a sharply critical independent review of Australia’s air safety regime. Ordered by the government late last year, the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (ASRR), released at the end of May, said the increasingly “adversarial” relationships between CASA and the industry threatened to undermine the open dialogue and data-sharing critical for improvingsafety. While acknowledging inevitable tensions between any industry and its regulator, the report said members of the aviation sector now “actively avoid engagement with CASA unless absolutely necessary. ” Citing McCormick’s statements in 2009 as well as CASA’s general approach to regulation, the review concluded that CASA’s “across the board hard-line philosophy” was “not appropriate for an advanced aviation nation such as Australia. ” The sharp rebuke was welcomed as vindication by critics, who were nevertheless quick to note that the review would do little good unless it was followed through by government. Chris Manning, chair of The Australian Aviation Associations’ Forum, a peak industry body, said he hoped the review would serve as a “catalyst for significant and urgent action,” including the full replacement of the CASA board to “realign CASA with the values identified as missing in the report. ” Aerial Agriculature Associationof Australia CEO Phil Hurst echoed the call for a clean sweep of CASA’s board. “AAAA believes that the position of the current CASA board and the senior management of CASA is simply untenable in the face of such stinging criticism regarding culture, values, performance, processes and outcomes,” he said. “The CASA board should immediately resign to clear the way for a completely new approach in line with most of the report’s findings. ” CASA declined to comment on the report, and it may be some time before the government’s response becomes clear. Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, who ordered the review, said the hiring of a new CASA director and the appointment of two new board members, mandated in the Coalition’s aviation policy, would provide an opportunity for the organisation to chart a new course.