Sometimes the doings of bureaucracy really make your skin crawl, and this is one of them. Except it's not really just the bureaucrats, it's the politicians who have the power to cut through that stufff, and don't.

And then they yammer on about "family values".

It's a hard thing in this case to know whether to depise the Australians bureaucrats and politicians more, or the Americans.

I would think the best chances are that the media in the States will recognise this for a powerful story, and that they can start a bandwagon that will shame some powerful politician who is running for office right now, so that they climb aboard.