I think this one has snuck under most peoples notice so far. As the stake was driven through the heart of NAS Airservices was tasked with coming up with its plan on what should happen in the next 5 years or so to replace it (so whichever minister we have this week can warble on that airspace reform is still on the front burner...)
http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/.../ATC_Jul06.pdf
As you can see from the above, the plan is to split all ATC up into 3 streams. From implementation on they will manage their airspace as they see fit (ie. differently) and waste huge amounts of resources arguing over who gets which airspace and which ATC resources. These arguements have already started, with Regional trying to pinch airspace off High Density in a workload maximising manner so they will have something to do and still feel important...
USER PREFERRED SERVICES : High level continental airspace and all oceanic airspace.
REGIONAL OPERATIONS : Airspace over continental Australia below the user preferred environment including Class D towers, Perth terminal and Enroute services. AusFIC is also part of this function.
HIGH DENSITY SERVICES : Airspace between east coast city pairs from Cairns to Adelaide. Includes Class C towers.
CONCEPT END STATE : Planning will include optimum alignment of Centre operations with service delivery lines. For example, each Centre may be reconfigured for operations for one or two service delivery lines.
Whadderyathink
