Thank you for posting the link Woomera, I read the article in the newspaper but couldn't find it on the net.
DA, Melbourne is not a smaller capital when you take into account the satellite cities around it the way Sydney does.
Furthermore, you are swallowing the same great big lie. "Most people want to go to Sydney". The reality is that after 20+ hours travelling anyone will get out anywhere! You could "Hub" at Alice Springs and then make exactly the same argument ie :"Most people want to go to Alice Springs".
I have said before I was willing to make a statutory declaration regarding AN's prohibition from breaking Sydney's monopoly on 747 turnarounds in the 70's and 80's.
Looks like by buying A380's and hubbing them out of Sydney you are perpetuating this situation, to the benefit of "Sydeny" and to the disadvantage of the rest of the country. This is something you should know if you ever look at the benchmarking statistics all Australian States and plenty of international destinations keep annually to attract overseas investment. - The number of direct international daily flights is critical.
The number of international friends over the years who have told me "Oh we were in Australia last month, but we couldn't get flights to come and see you" or "I wanted to come to Melbourne first before I went to the outback/barrier reef/kakadu, but I couldn't get the flights, I had to go via Sydney" is beyond counting. It is quite subtle how you do it. There is just never any spare capacity out of Melbourne, it all seems to be in Sydney.
Translation: Either service Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth properly or f&8k off and let Singapore do it.