As you may have seen in the press last week, the Federal Aviation Administration’s audit of Australia’s aviation safety in late 2009 was included in the Wiki leaks release of United States Government cables.
All I will say about those cables is that they revealed only one side of the story. CASA did not necessarily agree with everything put to us by our colleagues in the Federal Aviation Administration, but we were willing, as the cables indicate, to work with them to deal with any perceived shortcomings.
The outcome was what mattered. As I said at the time, the decision by the United States regulator to continue Australia’s category one rating was "a positive endorsement" for Australian aviation safety. "Australia can continue to be very proud of our aviation safety record and the effort we make to maintain that record."
This decision by the FAA to retain Australia’s Category One status reflects in part CASA’s heightened commitment to staff training and development. One of our key strategies to attract and retain the appropriate number of skilled staff is to provide the necessary and ongoing training for CASA specialists to ensure they are up-to-date with technological advancements.
We are also committed to developing a CASA workforce that understands CASA’s obligations and accountability on a whole-of-organisation basis. Developing this clear understanding of our obligations and accountabilities across the whole organisation is one way of mitigating against the unauthorised disclosure of information.
However the best defence against the repercussions of unauthorised disclosure is to have robust, consistent procedures in place that are clear and transparent and which stand up to scrutiny, regardless of the source of that scrutiny.
