I don't know what the law is like in Australia, but the relatively new UK offence of "shining a bright light" (as mentioned by
Heliport in Jan #162), that was introduced by the CAA in 2010, has made it a lot easier to prosecute the pain-in-the-a*se, laser-pointing, idiots than the comprehensive rigmarole involved in proving "endangerment", an offence which still exists in the ANO. If there's enough evidence, courts will still prosecute for endangerment but, in most cases, that evidence is hard to come by - so at least there's something to fall back on.
That the best result is a fine is not really a problem, IMHO, as young or old Mr Dork now is shorter of cash and also has a criminal record - not being sexist, it's just that we haven't found any members of the fairer sex indulging in this hobby, yet! Most of these incidents are relatively short lived, although damned frustrating/annoying/dangerous and invariably take our mind off the job in hand for a short while. Time taken to prove & evidence
endangerment is probably better spent on getting the rest of our job done. In any case, I'd rather see 10 (relatively easy to evidence) fines & criminal records, than one locked up for endangerment & wasting our tax-payers money in prison!
Obvioulsy, the best piece of kit to catch these idiots is a Police heli - we regularly get targetted & quickly get Officers on the ground to visit, advise &/or arrest, depending on circumstances. We've also had results as a report of reports from the airliners, when we've been in the area and have been able to take a quick, but careful, flyover!
If the Aussies haven't picked up on the lesser offence yet, it sounds as if some lobbying of the legislators might be worthwhile??