So the election is just a week away. And still both the major parties are telling us on an almost daily basis, what they are going to spend how many millions on what.
But wait a minute! All this money that they are spending or planning to spend is OUR money. It is the money that government has taken from or plans to take from us. It is not coming out of the hip pocket of any Polly.
To describe this situation I think is that old expression, Pork Barrelling. It is all very well for the Pollies to plan to spend millions on this or that but one has to wonder why the money was not spent progressively over the life of the government, Lib or Labour, to the betterment of the Australian people then, instead of this last minute rush to spend or plan to spend OUR money!
With regard to general aviation I still do not see any policy plans to look after GA, encourage people to live in country towns across the nation and so have general aviation do its bit to support those towns. Instead we have a regulator that has costed and regulated general aviation out of existence meanwhile government, past and present, sits on its hands and does nothing, just like Nero when Rome was burning!
Kissing babies at pre-election time is one thing but if there is no General Aviation industry then in future the Pollies will find it hard to get a charter to regional areas to have sandwiches with the ladies of the CWA.
I am looking at both parties that have done nothing to bolster the industry that I have worked in for many years. I am of the thought that they, L & L, have effectively killed off the GA industry in favour of the airlines.
When the airlines say they have pilots knocking on the doors of the HR department but that they do not meet minimum requirements and do not have good hours of general aviation experience then maybe the Pollies will listen, or is a case of the Pollies just whistling up an RAAF flight to get around. Forget GA. Good for the Feds but not for the State Governments.
Come the election date I will be expressing my thoughts to both L&L at the polling booth. I ask that you do the same. And vote accordingly with your tick pencil on the vote card!