FTT:
First post, huh?
I have no interest in delving into economic why's and wherefore's with you. Politics and economics are intrinsically linked with public and personal perception and opinion and as such have no scientific or mathematic base for existence. The only reason politics exist is because of power. For economics it is greed.
If it wasn't so we would have a health system that worked. Oh, and arts, aviation and other interests and endeavours generally perceived as the domain of 'dreamers' would flourish again.
The F3 on the Central Coast (THE major artery delivering all those goodies from QLD) is the equivalent of a back road in all the places FTT mentions.
Chinese are buying up the farms now. A single purchaser (chinese govt owned firm) bought 41 of them just last month.
Most of the mining is foreign owned.
So if you take mining and ag away, what's left?
A lot of rules, regulations, bureaucrats, lawyers, MBAs and paperwork.
Back to topic: rather than building a second international airport for Sydney, bring in air taxi, allow the small to medium airports to develop and be involved in their communities again so the general public has a chance at being exposed to and excited about GA, get rid of ASICs, get rid of strict liability bs, get rid of curfew at YSSY, and as I said before in between the lines, grow some balls, or get someone with balls in.
sc