I'm certainly not one to argue against smaller govt. The reality...

I'm certainly not one to argue against smaller govt. The reality is that Landgate do not actually conduct the surveys themselves - it is contracted out in a competitive tender to those likes of those I mentioned. Landgate's role is limited to funding and management of those contracts and the body to on sell the resultant data.

There is an efficiency in this approach in having large scale, co-ordinated surveys done at known intervals and accuracy rather than piecemeal by each department. Data sharing between govt. leaves a lot to be desired and having individual departments conduct their own aerial surveys would create either holes or duplication, hence Landgate's traditional charter.

I'm not saying there is not a market for Nearmap - Landgate were one of their first subscribers! Nearmap has some huge advantages but also lacks image consistency and accuracy which would be rejected as a product under Landgate's arrangements.