D.Lamination - MEL airport is now the second international airport in Australia with a 60M runway but I agree with you about lack of infrastructure development at Australian airports in general.
MEL runway 16 will be certified CAT III later this year (ironically we will be out of fog season by then), I believe they are waiting until they have replaced the ILS facility on runway 27. CAT III certainly would have been handy in the last week or two.
As far as LWMO training and recurrency for domestic carriers (or any modern jet operator for that matter), I realise that operators are trying to cut costs where ever they can, however the ongoing recurency training for LWMO ops takes very little time and is simply attached to the 6 monthly sim checks. The cost of the recurrency training to airlines is negligible when compared to the cost of even a few dozen diversions a year.
One also has to wonder as to whether the introduction of A380 services to Australia and the need for a guaranteed alternate should fog hit the Eastern seaboard, was a driving factor in the decision to finally install a CAT III facility at MEL.
Either way it will most certainly be welcome when it is operational.