Bank Royal Commission and Aviation
 

CLX,
As it has been impossible for all but a select few aviation companies (not including some pretty large ones) to raise unsecured bank type finance for many years, changes in bank lending policies will have little impact on what little of GA is left.

And ---- a good friend of mine in the finance business makes it quite clear that the fact that CASA can rob an organisation of it's cash flow with (as far as banks and major financial institutions are concerned, forget the theoretical niceties of AAT appeals etc. ) effective impunity means GA has been a nono for many years.

This problem has been raised in inquiry after inquiry into CASA and its behavior.

All roads lead to CASA.

Tootle pip!!

And roads lead to the predatory tactics of the airport leaseholders. When it was announced on the front page of the Sunday paper that they were going to "close Jandakot" my finance application for a new building was cancelled the next morning and I wasn't the only one. Who is going to approve finance for a building knowing that when the lease expires (and they were trying to limit them to five years) the asset will be seized and the tenant can only stay there if they lease it back from the head lease holder at a massive rent? We need a Royal Commission into the predatory and unconscionable behaviour of the people who benefitted enormously from the Airports Act and track where the money went.

I reckon that the Royal Commission into Banking is merely theatre. (It's certainly a lawyer feeding festival!) Some banking practices being revealed as outrageous as they certainly are or have been. But for a retired High Court Justice to take on such a mission to last a mere 12 months, is simply a favour to the Coalition government and the banks. Sure, bank share prices are a bit down now but I'll bet they'll recover afterwards.
Clare Prop raises another good point, as usual. But since a previous Coalition government saw fit to sell monopolistic airports to their matey spivs, we are stuck with all of this crap.
I've been a small business person for 31 years. My experience is that banks would never lend a cent to me without having my owned real estate to back it.

It was actually the Keating government that brought in the Airports Act, Coalition who handed out leases to developers and under Albanese's watch that they were allowed to run rampant while he sat back and let them interpret the leases in ways that meant the tenants got a very raw deal indeed (and of course Garrett who approved tilt up concrete to replace endangered wildlife habitats). Interestingly it was only Coalition MPs who ever took them to task over their attempts to get freehold and turn the airports into housing estates. The WA Nats were also very cosy with the developers. So...all sides of government are to blame for what crumbs we have now. It would be great to see them all squirm in a Royal Commission.

I'd add that the poor management of many aviation businesses is another reason the banks won't touch them!