In my mind it comes down to one thing, The Politicians do not care one iota about Aviation at anything below Airline Level, they very rarely see it, they very rarely experience it, ignoring it does almost no harm to their political ambitions as we are a small minority group of voters and in no way does General Aviation help line their pockets. So why would they bother with us? CASA knows this as well, so long as they continue doing things the way they're doing them, their Political Masters are kept happy.
I love GA and have no real desire to go to the Airlines, I'm lucky enough at the moment to be employed by an excellent company that pays me well and gives me excellent opportunities and I want to see more people being given the chance to have the same experience I'm currently having, preferably without all the muck required to get here which will only come about with massive change to the way CASA interacts with the Industry, but I honestly cannot see a way that we can gain the political leverage required to force the Government to actually do anything about it without getting someone to represent us in the Senate, I honestly believe this is where we need to push hard and as one group.