There is no requirment to go back to the days of the two airline policy + Qantas. Nor is there any reason to pay excesive airfares. The point is to level the playing field in order to keep some capacity in aviation, manufacturing and skills within Australia. Our companies operate under heavy rates of taxation and in intense competition due to a lack of restraint on foreign 'dumping' in every area of our economy. The way to preserve Australian jobs, infrastucture and skills is to ease the cost burdens on Australian industry caused by government policy. As for aviation, if pilots and engineers want to see Australian routes being predominently crewed and maintained by locals, then the government needs to control both the capacity granted to foreign carriers and the cost burden imposed on the airlines by taxation. Airport charges from privatised airports, , company tax, regulatory costs, fuel taxes, the 'user pays' policy and payroll tax all compound to make a difficult operating environment for local carriers. Other countries provide infrastructure, capacity control and regulation costs appropriate to preserving their national airlines. We need our politicians to treat our airlines and other industries in a similar way.