It's not the Government at all.
It's a couple of individual senators who have very little understanding of drones but won't let that affect their judgement.
Barry O'Sullivan says drones in the wrong hands could be devastating.
The government has an organisation (CASA) staffed with professionals to keep aviation safe.
I contacted the office of the senator pushing this and was told that he is worried because he looked on the internet and found lots of drones advertised that can fly to 18000 ft.
He had no idea of the difference between service ceiling and actual flight limits and imagines any kid can be up there with the jets.
In one report a Qantas pilot has told him of an incident where air traffic control told him of a drone at 12000 ft causing safety concerns!!!
These concerns started up last year when CASA remove the restriction on commercial use for drones under 2 kg.
Somehow he has the idea that CASA relaxed safety rules which have remained as they were.
Senator Nick Xenophon also had this idea last year when the licensed drone operators (worried about competition) fed him a line of BS about CASA relaxing safety rules.
Barry O'Sullivan doesn't seem to understand the difference between real drones and his drone fantasies.
Here's a quote from him "It won't be long before we look up in the sky and have a mass of activity, I mean, even a provincial city in Australia where there could be thousands of unmanned aircraft and devices going about their business of delivering pizzas or your order from the chemist shop or a packet of cigarettes, a six pack of beer and so on."
And he thinks it's easy to buy a drone that can carry a 20kg payload and cause vast destruction - but stupidly thinks that if he bans sales of Phantom-sized drones, this will prevent bad people from doing bad things with drones.
He he is on talk radio so you can see where he's coming from:
» Dangerous Drones in Senate’s Sights | Sydney Talk Radio
And here's the latest from him:
O’Sullivan pledges minimalist attitude to drone laws on agriculture
He's got big concerns about privacy, potential terrorist use and airplane safety.
This report shows how little respect these guys have for the experts at CASA:
Tensions boil over drone safety dispute
Any Australian members concerned could contact these senators who are pushing this (use the connect link on their web pages):
Barry O’Sullivan
Senator Barry O'Sullivan – Parliament of Australia
Glenn Sterle
Senator Glenn Sterle – Parliament of Australia
Chris Back
Senator Chris Back – Parliament of Australia
Nick Xenophon
Senator Nick Xenophon – Parliament of Australia