Back to topic, I'm fleshing out some of the policies that haven't been discussed/debated yet:
Rudd Government
Surprisingly not mentioned on this thread but I seem to remember a
246 page national aviation policy statement published last year. Their sales spin:
Australia needs a comprehensive aviation framework that brings together all aspects of aviation policy into a single, coherent and forward looking statement.
It is surprising that no Government has previously outlined a medium to long term Aviation Strategy before now.
...
- Ensuring aviation contributes to future economic development
- Enhancing safety and security
- Improving planning and infrastructure
- Promoting sustainability - reducing the impact of aviation on the environment
Australian Greens
From their
transport policy
19. a transport system, including roads, railways, airways and sea-lanes, that is safe, environmentally sound, efficient and reliable.
25. major airports located to minimise social and environmental impacts.
27. better transport services in rural and regional areas.
29. environmental costs incorporated into the cost of air travel.
Family First
Hampered by
Steve Fielding ... people like this should not be electable ... (from
ABC March 2010 ... his performance was laughable)
TONY JONES: So where did human beings come from?
STEVE FIELDING: Well, as I said, I believe that people, you know, started from being created. But, look, there are some other views out there about people evolving from other types of animals.
Shooters and Fishers
No aviation policy but an interesting view on population capping (with obvious economic growth impacts)
http://www.shootersandfishers.org.au/policies/
Commonwealth Government should place an immediate moratorium on (all) new immigration applications. Such moratorium to remain in place until the Commonwealth has carried out an audit of Australia’s natural resources, in particular, water and energy, and until a referendum is held to set the optimum population levels.
Howard Coalition Govt
An enlightening
article from Ben Sandilands described the conflict between protectionist Anderson with small-L Howard under Max the Ansett Axe.
Moore-Wilton, now the chairman of Sydney Airports Corporation and the Southern Cross (formerly Macquarie) Media Group, was the head of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Department when evacuated from Washington DC after the 9-11 attacks with John Howard on board Air Force 2, the Vice-President’s 747 airborne command centre.
“We were being flown to Honolulu where we were being asked a ransom to be flown back in some stranded [Qantas] jets,” he said.
It was a flight that coincided with news that Ansett Airlines had collapsed in the aftermath of its abandonment by its owner, Air New Zealand, in the most emotionally charged (but far from largest) corporate collapse in Australian history, but which had been pushed back to page three and beyond by the terrorist attacks in the US.
Moore-Wilton said John Howard was not surrounded by his usual team of advisors and had received a communication about a proposal to Cabinet to spend $750 million “propping up Ansett and rescuing it from its collapse”.
On the long flight Howard received a 10-point document as to the reasons why Ansett should be saved, and Moore-Wilton said he took a pencil to them, cutting out seven or right outright.
He said Howard came to the strong view that “it was time for the airlines to stand on their own feet and in their own right”, which meant Ansett’s hopes for a political reprieve had been snuffed out before Air Force 2 landed at Honolulu, where several Qantas 747s had been diverted on their way to Los Angeles and San Francisco when news of the 9-11 attacks lead to warnings that US air space was about to be closed and ‘locked down’.
Moore-Wilton said: “I think the decision the PM took on that flight allowed Virgin Blue the oxygen to grow and flourish.”
(At that time John Anderson, the acting Prime Minister, was actively pursuing media and political support for an Ansett rescue, only to run into the brick wall of Howard’s disapproval even before he had returned).