[G]ood luck, LB, forcing every VFR in the country to fit a transponder so E airspace will work.
I see your point, Capn. No piece of equipment has ever been mandated for VFR aircraft in Australia. CASA would never impose new costs on anyone. (BTW: Not all VFR aircraft have to be fitted with transponders for E airspace to work. VFR aircraft without transponders just have to stay out of it. That's kinda the point...)
We know what will happen if an RPT aircraft full of passengers collides with a non-transponder equipped aircraft in G.
It's the 21st century, FFS. We have hand-launched
drones flying around with transponders in them. That there are still highly intelligent, highly experienced people attempting to justify the operation of passenger-carrying RPT aircraft in airspace where non-transponder equipped aircraft may operate, completely astonishes me. That the operators and PICs of those RPT aircraft
choose to do it, completely astonishes me. As if the opinion of the mutual protection racket comprising CASA, Air Services and ATSB that it's 'not unsafe' makes it so.