Comparing an Aussie Saab 340 to an American is not a fair comparison due to much higher airport / airway charges etc.
Nevertheless the issue of regional airport screening has been brewing for some time.
Dropping from 30T to "above 20T" then to "20T and above" has always been a slippery slope to all aircraft operating into capital cities requiring security screening!
The RAAA and REX had a great opportunity to get on the front foot with this about five years ago and then three years ago, but took the view it did not concern them, so left it alone. Indeed REX publicly took on Dubbo, "stop screening charges at Dubbo" is still on the front page of their website.
The reality was security screening was inevitable, but unlike other countries we did not fight the winnable battle to get network funding and pricing. So each local airport has the CAPEX to set-up security screening, the ongoing costs to run security screening, and then recover that charge from a finite number of relatively price sensitive passengers.
Why should a passenger departing Brisbane pay about $2.30 yet a passenger from some regional centre pay $15??? And once we get into the smaller Saab ports maybe $25 or $30 per pax?
The security benefit is for all so it should be network priced for all.
If everyone paid $4 or $5 under a network priced model it would not be such a big deal.