It's just not cricket! At least that is what Regional Express (Rex) deputy chairman John Sharp is sort of saying when he says that "Rex is ready to pack up its bat and ball and go home."

And it's all over $4 to $5 (according to the mayor) or $9 (according to Rex) per person per flight to pay for the new delays at Dubbo City Regional Airport (sorry, that's meant to say new security measures, my bad).

As with nearly all debates we seem to have here in Dubbo, the truth is somewhere in the middle and has been lost in the rhetoric and emotion of the discussion.

Letters from Rex to passengers, past and present because we were silly enough to give them our email addresses, comments on the radio by Cr Dickerson about planes crashing into the Harbour Bridge and now the Dubbo Chamber of Commerce and Industry is sitting on the fence as the battle between the council and Rex continues to boil.

According to an interview in the Liberal; DCCI?vice-president Megan Dixon said the issue of the security stoush was raised at a full board meeting recently and the resolution was unanimously passed to stay out of the firing line.

"We don't feel we should buy into the argument between Rex and council, we believe it is a commercial argument," she said.

Interesting point of view from the organisation that "represents the interests of the Dubbo business community", also interestingly enough DCCI is an organisation that has commercial agreements with QantasLink.

There would be pros and cons for the argument, but in my mind the best thing that came from this meeting is the way in which Cr Ben Shields, the airport working party chairman, moved the recommendation to charge both carriers. The motion was carried unanimously and the councillors present worked together. Well done to our EELs!

The EELs have become a united group, standing behind their, and our, mayor and his deputy. To me this far outweighs the cost of $4, $9 or even $20 per flight; it shows us that council has come into line with the electorate, their employers, that they have listened to us; that we want unity, that we want a council moving forward and to their credit, they have done a great job on this.

Personally, I'm not sure if Rex has to by law, pay the cost, and as a frequent Rex traveller in the past the cost would not stop me from travelling with them in the future. What will stop me from doing so is the seemingly childish attitude of its deputy chairman when he said "the company would defy the council and vowed to stick to his guns refusing to pay a single cent. They can do what they like, but we will do what the law requires - not to pay the security screening charges, no-one is going to force us to pay."

Rex representative Chris Hine said "the company did not pay the charge at any other airport, it was willing to engage with the council and it would accept screening although not legally required, but not if it had to pay." OK Mr. Hine, what about Ballina? Albury? These councils and others like them must be very rich or very generous.

Nationals leader and opposition spokesman for Infrastructure and Transport Warren Truss has added weight to the argument by Regional Express not to pay for security screening at Dubbo's airport.

"The extra costs of this screening have the potential to make services operated by small aircraft unviable," he said.

Mr Truss said federal government law did not require passengers travelling on other similar aircraft to be screened. The only propeller-driven aircraft operating regular services in Australia that must be screened under the current law are the cargo passenger Q400 and ATR72s.

My question to Mr Truss is "what's the bloody difference?" Size? Yeah but they are all prop driven aircraft, so why one over another? Is it as our mayor has inferred that only certain sized aircraft can be used in a terrorist situation?

Are you guys for real?

As a result of the council's resolution, Mr Sharp said all options were on the table to force the council to change its mind, including pulling out of Dubbo.

Real grown up that is. Well Johnnie, if that's the way you're gunna play this game I reckon we should all just pop along and cheer real hard on Monday when the new Dash8-400 flies into town.

What do you think, 'cause that's what I reckon.

Saulie