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The main role of the Industry Complaints Commissioner (ICC) is to give the public and aviation industry a free and independent way to make a complaint about Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).
Before you start the complaint process, make sure we can accept and review your matter. Your complaint should be about a decision, action or service provided by CASA.
There are some exceptions to the matters we can consider. If the we cannot properly deal with your complaint, we will advise you as soon as possible. In such cases, the we will try to recommend who can resolve your complaint.
Below is an outline of our general complaint review process.
Tell us in as much detail as you can what happened and the reason for your complaint. Outline who was involved in the situation and how you have been affected.
Gather supporting evidence. You can provide documents and information to support your complaint. Either attach it to your online complaint form or post it to us with your complaint.
Send us your complaint along with any supporting documentation by either:
We look at the background that has led to your complaint being made.
During our review, we may:
While we are reviewing your complaint, we will make sure you are:
After considering all the available evidence and submissions, we form a clear and objective view of what we think the outcome should be. In most cases this is within 30 working days of receiving your complaint. It can be longer if your matter is more complex.
In our preliminary view, we make an assessment on whether it is more likely than not that the action or decision being reviewed was wrong, unjust, unlawful, discriminatory or unfair.
While we consider what both you and CASA say when we form a view, we make that decision ourselves.
A range of outcomes can result from a review:
When we tell you our preliminary outcome, we ask that you provide any additional information or submissions you would like us to consider.
If you provide us with more material, we will consider it before we finalise our review of your complaint.
When we reach our final decision we will tell you in writing and consider your matter closed.
You can withdraw a complaint at any time without any consequences.
If you make a complaint, you should not suffer any disadvantage as a result. Let us know as soon as possible if you believe that you have suffered any reprisals while we are considering your complaint, or after our review, and we will investigate your concerns.
If you're not satisfied with the way we handled your complaint you can contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman considers and investigates complaints from people who believe they've been treated unfairly or unreasonably by an Australian Government department or agency, including CASA and the ICC.
There is no requirement for you to have made a complaint to the ICC before approaching the Ombudsman with a concern about CASA. You can do this at any time.
As well as having the right to escalate your concerns with the Commonwealth Ombudsman, you can also highlight any concerns or issues you have with us to CASA's Board via the Board Secretariat.
Certain CASA decisions can also be reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) or the Federal Court of Australia. These applications must generally be lodged within a specified time after the decision was made by CASA.
Like the Commonwealth Ombudsman, you don’t need to have made a complaint to us before you can make an application to the Federal Court.
Please note that we may not be able to review a matter while it is with the ART or Federal Court awaiting a final decision.
