Political opportunism

By way of argument, everyone can see that the current targets of choice are to be found in mass gatherings. One would have thought that a few people waiting at Bullamakanka for the weekly air service would hardly rate as an attractive mass gathering target!

Furthermore, the impact to cargo aircraft of cargo screening will have significant and far-reaching logistical consequences should the government propose to introduce additional screening methods to the current model.

One of Australia’s largest air freight and logistics conglomerates which moves nearly two million items per week within its domestic air operations would not feasibly be able to implement additional screening mechanisms without significant disruptions to the community.

Should the government implement such onerous requirements, the flow‑on effect to regular public transport and regional operators who handle cargo would mean these operating costs would likely be absorbed by regional carriers who are already operating on slim margins, placing even further strain on the freight industry.

Therefore one can only view this attack on regional communities as political opportunism by a new monolith – the Department of Homeland Security – wishing to justify its presence and make its mark early.

But its effects will be keenly felt by relatively few voters in the bush. Smaller communities (perhaps those with less than 30,000 passenger movements per year) will likely lose their air service completely and every regional community that monitors its airline passenger numbers will know who they are.

Regional communities are not in a position to absorb additional security measures and neither are the regional airlines. Thus any additional increase in regional airfares would be unsustainable and quickly render the airline service unviable.

Therefore the only fair way to fund this proposed policy is for the costs to be shared equally by every Australian domestic air traveller, or the public purse.

However, perhaps the best way forward as a reasonable and acceptable compromise would be to examine and adopt the American approach. They have a program called the ASSIST program, whose goal is to strengthen the nation’s aviation system by establishing the best possible security solution in the unique context of that airport’s location

‘One can only view this attack on regional communities as political opportunism.’