A South Australian senator has slammed the federal minister for aviation for allegedly failing to respond to aviation safety recommendations.

Senator for South Australia David Fawcett has lashed out at Minister Anthony Albanese for: “failing to respond to the damning findings of the Senate Inquiry into the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) which was released on 23 May 2013,” Fawcett added that, “even the announcement of an external review of the ATSB by the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) was not made by the Minister but by the agency in question.”

Mr Fawcett is not without experience in the aviation arena; he chaired a recent Senate inquiry into aviation accident investigations and is a former Army test pilot. He says the Government has totally ignored the report and its 26 recommendations.

There are many fundamental and important changes proposed in the safety reform report, but Mr Fawcett has called on the federal aviation minister to ensure the review of the ATSB has the confidence of the aviation industry and the public by adopting Recommendation 8 in particular, which recommends: “an expert aviation safety panel be established to ensure quality control of ATSB investigation and reporting processes along the lines set out by the committee.”

While the possible engagement of the Canadian TSB has been welcomed, Fawcett says the gravity of the issues raised in the Senate report means that the Minister should be overseeing the review with the support of an expert panel rather than the ATSB.