Whilst all your points about the mismanagement of fatigue reports and selective interpretation of the university study are correct, i still find it hard to argue that the SYD and BNE pairings are produce excessive fatigue.
With 4 crew on a 13-14 hour sector, when rest is divided equally, as it usually is, all crew are getting a min of 5 hours in the bunk, and much of that is during normal sleep time. Additional to that, unless you are up at the crack of dawn to go to Hollywood or Disneyland, it is easy to get as much sleep in LA as you need.
I agree that VA management, like most airline management, only pay lip service to fatigue, but i know from experience that as far as long haul ops go, this is a fairly easy gig so far. Wait until they work out they can do back of the clock trips to Hong Kong with only two crew. Then there will be a fatigue problem.
V