Gentlemen, Ladies and undecideds, the key to airpower is FLEXIBILITY (quoted straight out of the Air Power Manual). Retention of mil ATCOs is required for this reason above all else...
Need to cancel leave at a moment's notice (even if you are already on hols) to support deployment/exercise/spontaneous new flying program requirements? Can do, Sir, that's what "service allowance" is for.
Need to extend people's working hours with as little notice as you like (as in "call the missus/day care/chaplain etc, you're working late today") to cover the absences left by those deployed/attached or to cover flypro requirements? No problem Sir, that's why we get service allowance.
Need to rejig the roster on a daily basis to cover out of hours moves? See where we're going here.....?
No need to give 7 days notice for roster amendments, no need to pay overtime, time in lieu is given when possible (a few years back, it was rarely possible, so dry your eyes princess and drink this can of harden up).
Using Reservists or a small core of uniformed personnel for deployments is only the tip of the iceberg. When people deploy (recently lost 1/3 of the section for 3-5 weeks), the ones who aren't deployed have to carry the load while they're away (over time, extra duty controller days etc).
The cancellation of Genesis tells me that at higher levels the RAAF (and I agree) do not trust ASA to staff at appropriate levels to facilitate the flexibility required by defence (whether due to war/peace-keeping ops, Tsunamis, rescue ops, training and/or serviceability of airframe issues - whatever) Not everything can be timetabled months, or even weeks in advance.
Looking at the Ric/Syd issues, where, despite being paid to provide an APP service to Ric, ASA would not staff SYD dep appropriately (combining them so that it could take up to 5 mins to process a "next" call with nothing visible within 25nm of Ric (to the west at least) - why on earth would the RAAF trust them with the whole kit and caboodle?
And while I'm ranting, stop whining about inflexible use of mil airspace. That is not the fault of defence ATC units:
1) many resticted areas require significant lead time via NOTAM for activation (eg 8 hours) so will be NOTAMd IAW the flypro the day before. Weather, serviceability issues etc may mean that the flights are delayed, but the NOTAM can't be cancelled (because it would need to raised again with 8 hours notice) during the delay period.
RAAF ATC would willingly give a temporary airspace release to ASA (thereby avoiding the NOTAM issue) but ASA are not allowed to accept airspace releases because restricted areas change airspace classes - so they would have to provide a class C service in areas which, when restricted airspace is not active, might be E or G.
So vast tracts of airspace sit unused for hours at a time. Very frustrating and a solution (for temporary release) is being actively sought atm.
2. Why are mil restricted areas so big? Because of the nature of operations within that airspace. Bombing/ air to air combat/ refuelling/ conversion training - high cockpit workload, abrupt and extremely fast manouvres (including supersonic speeds) coordination with the other 2,3,4,5 etc aircraft involved, a fast jet in the cruise can cover 10nm a min.
Luckily - we have lots of air space here, so our guys are able to train within big margins - maybe why our safety record is better than others.
But should mil airspace be more flexible - absolutely, with the curent regs though all or nothing seem to be the only options.