The folly of disregarding informed advice and placing airspace policy in casa
"Airspace is a non renewable national resource" - quote from the forward of the recommendations from the AERU when drafting the original Airspace Act in 2004.
As at least one of the frequent posters on this site will remember, the recommendations of the AERU were based on the premise that the management of airspace was a policy matter and not one of regulation and therefore the office charged with "airspace" should be within the ministry and not in the regulator. Unfortunately the combined efforts of Airservices (worried about the financial implications) and CASA (worried about not having sufficient "control") managed to have the OAR established within CASA and then progressively gelded by poor personnel choices and internal politics to arrive at the sorry state it now finds itself.
Much that same can be said for the reasons and processes behind the demise of NAPAC and RAPAC and the changes in the upper level committee, once known as the Air Coordinating Committee and its regional elements (RACS) where robust and effective stakeholder engagement and discussion could take place.
The fox is now in charge of the hen house and reasoned policy discussions on airspace management and joint facilities and shared use and inconvenience (once a good workable arrangement) for airspace are in the hands of rank amateurs posing as regulators with inadequate experience and understanding of both.
Gne