Jesu *** Christos, emergov, talk about going off half-cocked. As someone who has done exactly the type of flying the AAVN blokes (and, I'd assume, these days, bloke-ettes) are now doing, I know how (a) demanding, and (B) rewarding it can be. Far from inferring any of the criticisms you note, my inference was that I have heard from more than one source that, not just because of the recent swingeing defence cuts, the AAVN crews are averaging scandalously low monthly flying hours, and the flood work would be outside those restrictions.
Let's get back to the point of my post rather than my post script and Jim Molan's Canberra Times article.