Terrain, your post doesn't anger me at all, though I can't find the word "contract" in any of my posts. My motives are not purely commercial in this case, my AOC and aircraft aren't geared up for this sort of work, but there are others, professional operators who make a living out of flying, and who were able to do this work AND pay their pilots to do it, who missed out on the grant.
You used the example of the RFDS providing a community service helped by government grants. Yet nobody expects the RFDS pilots to do it for nothing. Just because it is a community service, doesn't mean it has to be voluntary!
These next generation of pilots are being given a message that it's OK to work for nothing, setting back years the work that many have done to try and ensure that pilots with low experience get paid the award. Just because these ECU students are fresh out of uni doesn't make them any less entitled to a day's pay. If there really isn't enough in the grant to pay them, which there should be if the hourly rate for does work out at about $200, then maybe a word to our Labour premier might bump it up to levels where they can get paid.