Sarcs, excellent post. Whilst reading it and around two thirds of the way though it I had a lightbulb moment - the reason we Australians are so over regulated, not trusted, micro managed and all treated as being guilty of breaking some kind of aviation rule is because of this - our heritage! We are Convicts!!! You see there is most likely two types of Australians (in the eyes of the idiots responsible for creating our Stasi like existence) - there is the general Aviator, whose ancestry can be traced back to Convicts deported to Australia for minor rule infractions such as stealing a loaf of bread or breaking wind in public (the equivalent today of forgetting to fill in your log book the instant you finish taxiing to the gate, or exceeding flight duty time by 18 seconds, or being colour blind according to CASA standards and Dr Pooshan's interpretation of the rules). Then you have those whose bloodline dates back to those who implemented these Nazi like rules in the first place. Sadly they too live among us today and work in positions of authority where they still believe we are all guilty of a crime before committing it, and as such must be bound and hog tied with red tape, rules and even more rules and add a few more rules on top of that, to ensure that we are not given enough space to even breathe the air that surrounds us.
CASA really just don't get it do they. Suppress the people enough (in this case our aviation industry) and eventually the whole system implodes and scenes of chaos ensue, with the people taking back their streets so to speak. Unfortunately there are signs of this occurring as most of us have had enough of being treated like third rate criminals when in fact we are honest, hard working citizens merely trying to eek out a living from an industry we love. CASA - this is 2014, not 1750. Wake the hell up, get over it, join the real world, please.