I am tempted to do what you say – that is, advise people not to vote for any of the major parties unless they agree with some important points which are supported by most Australians.
Please do that, very soon (although it’s probably too late to get real outcomes in advance of the next election).
The problem with aviation is that most people I talk to are only interested in airline travel and would probably prefer that GA didn’t exist at all. Of course they haven’t linked the fact that if GA fails, we probably won’t have the safety of Aussie pilots flying our airlines.
Don’t worry about what most people think about aviation. Many average punters trust your judgment, Dick, and will heed your advice without needing to understand the underlying complexity.
I hate sitting and watching the death throes of GA and I would do anything I could possibly do to stop this from happening, however I have a feeling that the quicker it happens, the quicker it will be fixed.
Sounds like the US’s justification for atrocities in Vietnam: We had to destroy the village to save the village.
So your plan is to wait for everyone to wake up some day after the last of the little maintenance organisations and flying schools and charter organisations close the hangar doors, whereupon it will somehow become clear that this could and should have been avoided? I reckon that’s not a good plan, Dick.
I find it incredibly difficult to believe that the Minister would simply repeat the discredited “safety is the most important consideration” wording. Presumably he has done this to support the bureaucrats within his office, within the Department and within CASA. Presumably it is all about not being accountable.
It’s a perfectly rational position for a politician to take. Why risk being accused of “putting the flying public at risk” by the ‘other side’ ahead of the next election. There’s not a cigarette paper between the major parties’ policy on aviation safety, because there’s no electoral advantage in any difference.
But threaten the cosy duopoly by actively and publicly advocating for an ‘anyone but them’ vote, Dick, and you’ll be amazed at the bi-partisan support you’ll get for whatever outcomes you want.
Your perennial problem is that you assume that politicians care about the objective merits of an issue.