Amazingly, I have not received one word of coverage on this issue in the print media.
What most people in the aviation industry find amazing is that Dick finds it amazing that nobody wants to listen to him. This is an ego utterly out of control.
What we are talking about here is a man who complained bitterly in the 70's about not having unrestricted access with his helicopter to his harbourside mansion's heliport. For this (under the Squeaky wheel principle) he was rewarded by a cowardly government with a position in charge of the nation's regulatory body, now no longer a pathetically inefficient government department, but a lean and mean GBE called the Civil Aviation Authority.
He appointed as CEO an unknown Kiwi (Frank Baldwin) on a huge contract with the specific task to decimate departmental expenses. Admin staff were halved, and Flight Service was pinpointed as the most obvious way to cut millions from the budget. This achieved, Frank got his payout, went back to NZ with a fat wallet and a lasting reputation as an incompetent puppet.
Dick pointed to the halo above his own head and disclaimed responsibility. Since then, morale in the department has been non-existent.
Dick, however, has found it impossible to let go of the limelight. Whichever way the aviation wind has blown, there he is, claiming credit for everything positive and distancing himself from everything negative.
For those who think that all "businesses" should be run by egotistical millionaires with monumentally simplistic answers, Dick is the answer to a dream.
I suggest that anyone who cares to look a little deeper into Australia's aviation problems with a local point of view, rather than slavishly following hugely populated countries whose situation bears no resemblance to ours, will realize that the industry is being publicly ridiculed by an opinionated boy scout, a private helicopter pilot whose only concept of the larger aviation picture is a financial one.
The amazing thing is that anybody still seeks his opinion.