Many moons ago I was a member of the ALAEA, when TAA were head to head with Ansett.
I was at TAA too, so was my Dad. It was a different world back then. TAA didn't have to worry about how much money they made or lost. Now we do because we have very large Executive bonuses and share offerings to support.
However, I really don’t think that by putting ALAEA folks forward as running candidates will have the effect that you are looking for. In my opinion aviation people should be bending the ear of their local federal member, or alternate member, come the September 14 election result
You are right, it should work with local members listening to the people they represent. Arguing for good policy in parliament in genuine debates where both sides listen and carefully consider the material put before them. We could help them by supplying information to support the arguments and if we all went to different local members, a number of them would at least understand some of these aviation problems.
Your logic would be successful in an ideal world where Democracy did not mean corruption. Before I was in my FedSec role, I knew nothing about Politics and often just put donkey votes in. I thought I could reason with the Politicians and surely they would understand our problems. This is what we tried for years and I can tell you. It does not work.
Most of the big players in the main parties are first class grubs. They are experts at it. I've sat in their offices and shown them stuff that shows complete contempt for the Laws of this country. They write down stuff, make copies of evidence, call in offsiders with words like "have a listen to this John, we need to get on to it". Then, nothing happens. A short time later I see them in tents at the Melb Cup swooning about with CEO's having the time of their lives, or see the Parliamentary declarations of free ipads or Grand Final tix.
If you think they listen to reasoned debates raised by local Members on behalf of their constituents, watch the APAC channel for a bit. Question time runs for one hour and is live on ABC. Every grub who wants his head on the box sits in the House for that hour. It is all of them. Then come 3pm, they all leave the House because it reverts to APAC which nobody watches. They run speeches in that place with a Speaker, Talker and 3 or 4 on each side of the house only.
The reason we need to run candidates is because I have finally worked out what makes them tick (I know this took me a while). It is self-preservation. Every deal, every comment, every bit of support and every single decision comes down to "what can it do for me". The people who go to their local member can't do anything for him/her. You need to have something they want. The only thing they want is votes to get re-elected.
The person who goes to see his member has one vote. The Aircraft Engineer/Pilot/Plumber or Candlestick Maker who runs against that member has 1000's of votes he sits on as preferences. They want those votes to self-preserve their positions. In return we will want them to address our Aviation concerns and we have learnt enough to know that they won't get our support by simply calling in an advisor and getting them to jot down a few notes whist they explain how genuinely concerned they are.
Hope this explains the reality of things.
cheers