Lookleft:
The lack of a BFR was an indication of the pilots attitude to his responsibilities as was the lack of planning and obtaining a weather forecast. When will the GA population of Australia stop thinking that if only ATC were better then VFR into IFR accidents wouldn't happen?
When will the BFR be more than an expensive box ticking exercise (unfair to some)? When will the regulations actually encourage safe behaviours? When will enforcement encourage safe behaviour? When will accident analysis and reporting encourage safe behaviour? However that is actually irrelevant.
To put that another way, suppose the pilot was an ab initio student high on drugs and alcohol in a stolen aircraft. Does that absolve Airservices? Of course not! They have no way of knowing the state of the pilot unless she tells them!
The idea that a BFR and a map may have saved them from Airservices is a fantasy.