This case has been dissected to death on Aussie dive forums. AFAIK, the company concerned had a whole set of perfectly wonderful standards and procedures in place, which if followed would have probably prevented this tragedy, they ignored almost every single one of them! It was for this reason that the fine was levied. The fine, by the way, was commensurate with other workplace death judgements.
As a DM, one of my biggest dilemmas is at what point should i step in and tell somebody that they cannot dive ?
Many people seem to resent the percieved 'interference' of DMs in their diving and "I've dived thousands of times more than you, you newby whippersnapper and if i decide to jump off the boat with my air off, fins in my hand and mask on top of my head, then that's exactly what i am going to do. And you can't stop me !!" is an (only slightly exaggerated ) example of the sorts of things that you get told.
Just occasionally, the dive industry needs to remember that the customer is not always right.


just my 2 seashells worth