VARA certainly aren't the big end of town and have been on shaky terms with our Canberra overlords for sometime now.
Not too sure what CASA could come out and immediately do - personally a bit of the ol' Tiger treatment would have been good to see, just to show that CASA weren't bullying Tiger a few years ago and they are trying to be consistent... But you're probably right, that big red virgin on the fin makes those decisions very hard to make.