Dick,
mate, $4,000 is cheap!!
How about $6,000 and eighteen months for RVSM approval, aside from the fact the aircraft left the factory RVSM approved and flew all the way to OZ through RVSM airspace and Thats not counting the eighteen months of flying about at FL280 pumping vast amounts of carbon into our atmosphere.
Something seems to happen as soon as that VH is painted on an airframe.
Or how bout a hundred grand and twelve months to put an aircraft similar to your CJ on an AOC.
Imagine where our mining industry, which is about the only thing keeping this country afloat at the moment, would be if they had to pay that every time they wanted to introduce a new ore carrier into their fleet? (All in the name of safety of course)
CAsA put out a cost benefit analysis on what part 61 will cost the industry...
These people must be living in LA LA land if they think thats even close to the true cost.
There is a very informative narrative on CAsA's web sight where they use an imagined operator loosely based on the now defunct Brindabella to illustrate how a company should introduce a safety management system. It illustrates just how completely out of touch CAsA is with the industry they embugger.
This mythical company employs a myriad of people at management level to administer a few piston twins and a couple of turbines.
If Brindabella operated like that in reality its no wonder they went broke.
You can charter and aircraft in the USA for about a third of the price for the same aircraft here.
Why?
They don't have user pays.
Their airports are public utilities, utilised in the public interest for aviation, not as a cash cow for loan sharks and property developers to milk industry and the public alike of billions of dollars on which they pay no Tax.
They have a regulator who has "Foster and promote" in their charter.
Their regulations are not in the criminal code, are written in plain language and unlike here actually work to improve safety.
The FAA is by and large not corrupt unlike our regulator.