My goodness me, was it as long ago as thirty years! How time flies!
Thank you for putting the matter into some better perspective than my remembrances permitted. I think then that Schadenfreude on my part should be tempered with sadness that such a situation as you describe has arisen in Australia. What you describe is a great shame for aviation and the more so because it is in theory so easily rectified.
But my goodness me, I'd love to be an overseas desperado again though!