This is not a case of Australia going it alone with ADSB. Europe is roaring ahead with its implementation because it is a nobrainer to install a widespread ADSB network to in the long term replace an expensive radar network. We in the Middle East have just started using a new system that has a seamless ADSB display so that when we switch off our radar inputs (which we have done in the test environment) all ADSB equipped aircraft continue to blip along as usual updating every 3.2 seconds. Currently we have between 20 and 30 % of all aircraft equipped but that will quickly increase considering the rate of new aircraft deliveries here in the UAE.
I have spent a lot of time at one of the main manufacturers in Europe of the ADSB ground units and it is amazing to see the little 20 cm long fibreglass stick with the mobile phone size battery running it, and when they explain that a small solar panel could run the unit in a remote location with little maintenance you realise the potential for full radar like coverage not only across all of Australia but also across much of the world oceans and remote areas.
This technology is the future and Australia is highly respected internationally for being one of the countries leading the way. Every day in the majority of Australia, aircraft are subject to procedural separation, and people are worried about what happens if GPS is lost????
Embrace the technology, realise what it will do for pilots, controllers and the travelling public alike, and stop a bunch of panic merchants who are resistant to change when we finally get a change that deserves to be supported (unlike the debacle called NAS, hmmm 500 mile an hour jets in the same bit of non-radar airspace with non-communicating lighties, yeh that sounds like a great idea, and who cares what the USA does, if an idea is stupid it is stupid regardless of who else is stupid enough to do it).