CurtainTwitcher:
You're welcome! That Research Report has some interesting findings that are as relevant today as they were 10 years ago. Of all the risk mitigators they analysed, it's probably no surprise that the requirement to always carry an alternate provided a significant reduction in risk. From page 29:
"The requirement to always carry fuel to fly to at least one alternate was tested, and demonstrated a marked increase in safety. However, the numbers of events that met the criteria were sufficiently low that it was not possible to make any statistically significant analysis beyond stating that this requirement does create a significant reduction in risk.
The Australian operating environment is different from many parts of the world where a similar operational requirement is used, both because of its more benign operating environment, and because of the larger distances than normally exist between suitable alternate airports. These factors could both reduce the perceived need to make a requirement for the mandatory carriage of fuel for an extra alternate, and to make such a requirement more onerous with a greater fuel uplift."