Letters to the pollies do have an effect. The basic metrics they use is that for every letter they receive that person represents 1000 votes (yes pretty much 1 in 1000 people will actually write to their local pollie - or any pollie). Interestingly it is very roughly about the same percentage of licenced pilots (with current medical) in the local population.They do have a list of serial complainers which they pretty much ignore, but if you have never written to a pollie or do so only occasionally and are firm but polite, sticking to the facts then your "issue" will be filed with others of a similar nature. Then when it reaches a mass that they believe will affect their election chances, it then becomes a topic of interest to the pollie. However I am also the member of another group which is even more "persecuted" than unloved pilots (maybe I just like lost causes??...) and that is a firearms owner. SO I know how hard it is to gain traction in something that is even less to the liking of the inner city soy latte drinkers than flying small aircraft is! And trying to get firearms owners to align their collective interests is almost as hard as trying to herd pilots.
But, there is another way. That is, to excite the public once again about aviation. It is easier said than done as the 24 hour news cycle shows. People (yes you and I) have the attention span of a gold fish, so in order to excite the public and keep them on task, is a huge ask. But I believe it is doable.
I am putting my money where my mouth is and if it comes off you will all see the fruits of this labour in around 18-24 months time. If not I will once again be as pessimistic as 96.8% of pilots on this board (The missing 3% is made up of student pilots and 0.2% of those going through the VET-FEE HELP thingy...). All I ask for is when you do notice this endeavour, is your support in spreading the word. More info to come over the next 12 moths or so. Hopefully if you are about 1/10th as passionate about aviation as I am then I am sure you will help out without even knowing it.
In the meantime write to your politicians. Your letters, hitting them at the between now and the time this endeavour comes to light, might just get some traction for what should be the mainstay of our large sparsely inhabited land.
Time will tell I guess, but I am at the stage in my life where if I don't at least try then I will die wondering if I could have actually done something to save general aviation in this country. I don't want to be in that position. So bugger it, it is only money...
Cheers
CB