You want batteries in the cabin where you can quickly locate, ascertain and compartmentalize the treat from randomly exploding batteries. This new regulation makes travel less save. The IATA should put their foot down here.
Not that these conflicting requirements should affect anyone though - Australia flies directly to the US (or via Asia or NZ), and to the UK it usually flies through Doha, Dubai (which is not impacted by the UK ban).
I suspect not because they didn't want to, but simply because they couldn't, on account of the no-checked-laptops rule you mentioned.
[0] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australi...
Regulations and procedures for dangerous items are primarily codified by ICAO, a UN agency.
IATA have their own superset but that only applies to members of that organisation, as opposed to the ICAO regs which are binding on air carriers based in UN nations.
I’m not sure how effective this ban can be, but I assume there’s recent intelligence that prompted it.
In this case, I suppose it’d be easier for the terrorist to have a manually-triggered bomb on their lap, vs having to also rig a GPS or time-delay bomb for the cargo hold. Obviously still do-able, but one step harder.
To be clear, I’m not all that impressed by the ban or it’s effectiveness.
With the axe, it's a known quantity, unconcealable, large and conspicuous, but personal possessions are variable, and the only way to normalize them is to remove them from the equation.