The effect the fee has in Australia is that only active Hams maintain
their license, so you have a clear picture of how many active hams
there are as opposed to just those who had an interest years ago and
haven't touched a radio since. There was a discussion about changing
the license to get rid of the fee but that went absolutely nowhere.

Robert Casey wrote in message ...

It hasn't really been long enough to judge whether the amateur radio
service gets worse treament as a result of no license fee.


In the USA it definately would not, as all fees get dumped into
a giant bucket of money, along with all the other taxes you pay.
Then Congress divies up all that money.