Good onya Geoff Brown! He is still displaying the common sense he showed when I taught him to fly helicopters back in 1981. Unfortunately he went on to fly fighters after that, but retained a brain - very unusual for a knucklehead.
Dealing with defence purchases is a highly political thing. The best item we want to buy will get watered down by some politician who wants his electorate to build some part under licence, and the demand to have a special "Australianised" version adds squillions in R&D and adds years and sometimes a decade to the delivery process. We are just too political to buy something off the shelf that already works.