Dick, I congratulate you on your efforts thus far. As an ATC in Melbourne Centre, I never thought I'd see the day when I would be agreeing with you on anything! Your voice on this matter is a victory for common sense.
Today was a crappy day weather-wise on the East Coast. TS all day long to the west of YSSY neccessitating in never-ending diversions and level changes. On top of that it was a Friday afternoon
! To state the obvious, we were flat out all day. Towards the end of the day a VFR pilot flying low level OCTA requested numerous wx information for enroute and destination. Without going into detail, it took quite a few minutes between separating and coordinating the rest of my traffic, which was all over the place, before I could give this poor bugger the info he needed. In the end I was getting a bit exasperated with this guy, who was of less importance in the priority heirarchy. I eventually got around to getting him what he wanted, and he was happy. No doubt he was aware of how busy I was.
When I unplugged, I thought about it. This punter needs the correct information on which to operate safely, and there should be someone, somewhere who can give that to him. On days like today we are flat out looking after the traffic we can see, let alone the VFRs we can't. It's on days like today that these guys need updated wx information, yet ironically we can't provide it because we're too busy. I fear for the day that some poor bugger spears in because he requested the latest thunderstorm information and we kept pushing him to the back of the queue because we are busy handling wx diversions with international and domestic jets. It's madness in my book. I just hope I'm not the bunny sitting in the chair that day.......