P51D:
Don't forget Prof Fred Hilmer. Henry Bosch was the architect of user pays but Hilmer, with the support of the Libs, Labor (the illustrious Laurie Brereton) and the Nats, was the real instigator of corporatization and privatization.
The Government did very well out of the sale of the FAC airports $5b+ from memory and now the whole industry is fractured with GA dying.
As an aside, a beautiful day in south west WA today and 10 years ago plenty of lighties would've turned up for a visit and lunch in this quiet pretty coastal town. No landing fees. Today, one arrival only - a gyrocopter! Says it all really, the heart of GA has been ripped out by an incompetent regulator, greedy airport owners operating under the protection of the Airports Act and politicians who are so out of touch it's disgraceful. Can't see a solution, regrettably.
It should be noted that we don't have true "user pays" in Australian Aviation because the implicit checks and balances in such a system were never enacted. When government bears the full cost of regulation, the Treasury provides the checks and balances in the form of an annual budget, efficiency reviews, auditor general etc. In true user pays, the user either has an option of a choice of service providers and market forces provide the checks, or the checks are enacted via strict rules on costing and pricing by the regulator, mandatory cost benefit analysis, a requirement to foster industry, etc., etc.
We don't have any of that, just obscenely bloated abortions of institutions allowed to charge what they like without any let or hindrance.
The solution is RAA and SAAA aircraft using private grass field runways at present.
However once CASA, AsA and airport owners have finished sucking the last blood out of GA, they will come after those little aircraft as well.