During the NAS debate, Dick Smith tried desparately to convince VFR pilots that it was safer to listen out on the CTAF frequency (out to 30 nm and up to A100?), rather than listening on the area ATS frequency, in order to gain improved situational awareness about RPT/IFR traffic movements into and out of busy airports.
The link to this recent ATSB report on a near-miss incident north of Kununurra would appear to indicate that his assumptions and analyses were very much misguided, and under-researched:
http://www.atsb.gov.au/aviation/occu...ail.cfm?ID=653