CASA Acting CEO and Director of Aviation Safety Shane Carmody and David Forsyth, author of the Aviation Safety Regulation Review (ASRR) have met to discuss progress in implementing the review's recommendations.
According to information Carmody supplied to Senate Estimates last Tuesday, the two met a fortnight ago.
"We sat down and went through the recommendations to see whether or not there were any areas of disagreement and there are a few. I undertook to provide him some information to show where in fact things had changed," Carmody said in response to a question from Senator David Fawcett.
"We have made great inroads in the just culture space. As I said to Mr Forsyth, though, if I make an adverse regulatory decision on somebody, the first thing they will say is 'You are out to get me,' or 'It is the culture of the organisation; it is not what I was doing wrong.' I said we really have to understand that it is a complex industry and a complex environment. We are hoping to have the majority of work done about the middle of this year but I still have half a dozen recommendations or so that will not be done."
Carmody admitted that CASA would not make the 30 June deadline for all recommendations to be implemented, noting that the current schedule was over "a number of years", but that he and the CASA team were trying to reduce that.
"I have gone through all of those with Mr Forsyth," Carmody told the senate committee. "We try and work our way through what is achievable by the middle of the year and we are still in a dialogue. But let me assure you, the work is underway and a lot of progress has been made."
David Forsyth was positive in his evaluation of the meeting, despite the differences of opinion on some matters.
"He [Carmody] and I are trying to reach agreement about status, and as Shane noted, we had some areas of disagreement," Forsyth told Australian Flying. "He is going to provide me with some additional information, and I am going to seek more feedback from some industry players as to their view of progress.
"There has been progress on some items, some push back on others, and there are recommendations which will continue to be work in progress.
"The positive aspect is that Shane is discussing the issues, which is the first meaningful dialogue I have had with anyone in CASA since the report was written. It is a pity for industry that two years were lost until Shane came on board and picked up the ball."
Carmody's evidence to the senate was that CASA was working towards the day that both he and Forsyth were to agree on the implemented recommendations.
"I am hopeful that Mr Forsyth, as the author of the review, and I, as the regulator that is implementing those things, will be agreeing on each one of the recommendations that have been closed out and the ones that remain. That is my aim."