The improvement in safety will pay for these things many times over and again.
pjm,(and slippery pete)
Absolute rubbish, and that is from AsA's own figures.
In the mid-levels, (10-25,000) the collision risk probabilities have been shown (using AsA's own model) to be a statistical zero, and several magnitudes less than the ICAO standard.
Under the existing arrangements, all classes of airspace in Australia have have a collision risk probability better than the ICAO target, which is about the same collision risk as an asteroid big enough to wipe out life on planet earth.
Neither AsA, nor anybody else, has ever been able to produce a genuine justification to the path that Australia is taking. Every attempt at a cost/benefit analysis to justify the policies have not even been genuine cost/benefit analysis, but more akin to cost/effectiveness analysis, where it is very obvious that it is effective for AsA to transfer costs to the industry in general.
I am reminded, some time ago, now, of a senior Virgin Flight Ops. executive extolling the theoretical virtues of ADS-B, but admitting that they could make a safety case to the board of the company, to justify the costs.
Of course, no trouble, just the Australian way, have it all made mandatory, and sing the safety song to the supremely ignorant, including many in the aviation sector -- as seen from some of the posts on this thread.
Ask every airline pilot in Australia who operates to uncontrolled aerodromes whether they think brand new transponders country wide for the IFR GA fleet would be a safety improvement.
Oh!! The wonderful world view of "Australian" pilots, where fact doesn't get a look in. I am reminded of the then AFAP Technical Director arguing that "a perception of a safety problem was the same as a demonstrated safety problem" and, therefor, Australian airspace management processes had to take into account "perceptions of a safety problem", even though rigorous analysis has shown the problem did not exist.
Being a pilot of any kind does not make you an airspace management expert, any more than having a drivers license makes you an expert on traffic engineering --- even if many think otherwise.
Tootle pip!!
PS: I don't understand the references to requiring a WAAS enabled GPS, although it is true that a number of Garmin GPS, that meet the Australian TSO's of a GPS source are WAAS compatible.