Porter,
Have you ever lived outside Australia? You may pick on Australias faults but until you live somewhere else you will get the feel for how advanced we are in many ways.
G'day Climb, yes I have. And I'm about to leave again for a 3 year stint. (I'm not running you down by the way!) Australia exists on luck, lucky that the ground is full of ore, gold, bauxite etc. If you compare Australia to any country that has natural resources you will mostly find sovereign wealth funds, what does Australia do? Pisses it up against the wall on useless, out of date infrastructure. Like a rich kid with a trust fund.
I have broadband internet at my hangar, a couple of nights ago I was getting 1.5 megabits per second.
I drive to Point Cook to do a bit of work, I reckon the population out that way would have to be what? 70, 80k? The road I take in is 2 lane to the roundabout, then narrows to one lane in and out. FFS, people living there working in the city spend 40 mins getting out of the suburb, then 20 to the city.
I've been doing some work at a large regional airport, well, a lot of work actually, but that organisation is about to shut down due to a few factors, too many to go into here, but due mainly to the Australian way of doing things. If you work in aviation in this country, GA in particular, you'll see death by a thousand cuts. The other sectors I'm not in a position to comment. RAAus is thriving, mainly due to the ease of 'doing things.' Any pilot who works in both sectors knows exactly why. But an RPC won't get a job at any airline. Great pathway in but then.........
The country I'm moving to verified my licence in days, at a cost of $0. CASA charged me $25 for a licence re-print and $50 for the verification letter. Ring 131 757 any day of the week and ask to speak to an FOI, good luck with that! It is virtually impossible to speak, even briefly, to one. Good luck in your Part 61 interpretations, but get one of those interpretations wrong........Then read the FAA Part 61.
An Australian Prime Minister boasted about her first term, 1200 new pieces of legislation in her first 12 months, personally I find that a disgrace. An absolute disgrace. I would be looking at a PM repealing legislation in this country as a success. (The number quoted is not exact but whereabouts).
It goes on mate, on and on. I'm not stupid enough to think any country is utopia, but for the resources this country has, both human and natural wealth, it's an embarrassment. $120k on FEE-HELP to get a CPL & IR, spare me please. Why any kid is paying $30k upwards for a degree?? Why anyone is walking around with a mouthful of rotten teeth because dental is 'cosmetic'??
Pretty average I reckon.