.. decisions about such things are made by CASA in accordance with the wishes of the Minister (National Party - Mr McCormack). ...
Because Airservices cost-recovers its services then the majority payers such as Qantas get to decide what Airservices spends their money on - and I can almost guarantee a control tower at Mildura is not even on the bottom half of their list.
Government agency decisions with aviation safety implications being influenced by politics and money? Surely not!
I suppose that having taken the safety of air navigation into consideration as the most important consideration, CASA then takes other matters into consideration as less important considerations, and bingo! Aircraft full of fare paying pax get exposed to the ‘chaos’ of aerodromes in Class G airspace. According to ERSA, Mildura doesn’t even have an RFFS to hose surfactant over the charred remains. These folk will step up, though:
https://news.cfa.vic.gov.au/-/brigad...gency-exercise
I still don’t understand why pilots fly in and out of the place, if it’s so dangerous. No one’s holding a gun to their head. Are they consulting with the SLF before exposing them to these risks?