It is my understanding hevi lift approached airwork to fill in until they got a second machine servicable but airwork were not interested in such a short term arrangement so HL approached life flight who tried there hardest but could not find crews to do the job so pulled out.
However I do not think any organisation that runs its budget with donations from the public or funding from any government should conduct commercial operations - if it is legal then all operators should recieve the same subsidies to make it fair to all. This is not to say companys carn't bid for contracts that pay for themselves but they should not be able to run offices and staff on funding and be able to pick off work at the expence of the non funded operator.