Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development Secretary Mike Mrdak says the appointment of a new Director of Aviation Safety (DAS) at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority will be made shortly.
Mrdak said there had been an extensive search process that considered local and overseas candidates.
“The board selection committee has completed its assessment process and advice is now with the Minister in relation to the matter,” Mrdak told the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee in estimates hearings last week.
“I think it is fair to say we hope that the matter will be completed in the next few weeks,” he said on October 20.
Terry Farquharson has been filling in as acting DAS until a permanent replacement to John McCormick, who left CASA in August at the conclusion of his contract after five and a half years in the job, was named.
Meanwhile, the committee also heard from Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Martin Dolan, who said the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s independent external review of the ATSB’s investigation processes would be released by December.
“We had a teleconference with our Canadian counterparts last Friday and they assured us that their report would be published by 1 December,” Dolan told the committee.
Dolan said the ATSB received a draft copy of the report in August and had provided “some comments on the factual content of the report and our understanding of it and areas where we thought there could be clarification”.
