Adamaster
Actaully, I have found the controllers here quite accomodating while under VFR. I was refering to the SYSTEM as discouraging.
ie. GA user flying a duchess at around $5 a minute trying to keep current in aircraft and approaches is subject to approach fees, airspace use, landing fees (3 in 90 days etc), fees to get a Wx brief/file for entering class C where the ILS is.
Most IFR flights probably have to fly IFR (company ops/Wx etc) but VFR have a choice, or do they? That duchess flight cost close to $400 for the first hour, if the pilot elected to conduct it under IFR. Now, back when I was training abroad, I never paid more than $120 US for a Duchess and no air services/landing charges.
So, looking at the entire cost of GA IFR flying, I can fully appreciate that with the extraordinary cost of flying in Oz coupled with the myriad of fees for the use of the IFR system, that it discourages those that dont HAVE to use it. In order to save each possible hard earned cent of the GA pilot, they, as I was, would feel reluctant to use the safety net of the system.
MJB