Giving the conspiracy theory any credance at all then the best time to have shut them down would have been just before Easter or Christmas which is the busiest time of the year in Oz. Yes there are still people travelling during the winter time but most people travel domestically during our summer time because that is when most people take their holidays. This is the reason that Jetstar want to introduce part-time pilots to cope with the seasonal variation. The low point being June July August. It also coincides with what the Europeans would laugh at and we call a ski season. There is no jet RPT in Australia to our "ski resorts".