The Feds made Vet Fee Help retrospective because they got burnt in other area as well as aviation, so having to carry three months trading before you get paid is an issue for all flying organisations that rely on it including the likes of Basair which you would also have to be concerned about.
RQAC/AAA went to the wall because they burnt their cash on dreams of creating an Oxford/CAE/CTC. The CEO and hangers on consultants made endless trips to Indonesia and China and the USA, all a waste of cash and time up till the point they hit the wall. RQAC suffered badly in the hail storm of Jan 2015 and required major repairs to their buildings which the insurance paid most of I suppose , but then they burnt more cash trying to tart up the 80 year old hangar 1 which is leased from the Archerfield Airport Corp. There seemed to be a huge growth in staff when the revenue in terms of the number of students hadn't changed much.
The Chairman in 2015 and the Board of Directors essentially gave the CEO a free hand and the trajectory to the end was obvious to any keen observer.
Poor management and weak Board Corporate Governance is the real underlying reason IMHO.
Too many snouts drinking long , hard and fast from the well, and giving it no time to replenish so that inevitably it dried up.
The hard working staff and students were probably largely unaware of it, so they have unfortunately have been hit hard and are the real collateral damage here as are the many other creditors who relied on RQAC trade to make a living. Lets hope they get paid.
The Management and Board will probably skate through the VA and possible liquidation and avoid any ASIC action and will no doubt crop up elsewhere in the industry to continue the train smash.
As a small business operator at AF I have observed RQAC over many years, but the last 2 years seems to have brought changes in the way it operated that the end was inevitable.