It's not just Australia. It's the school holiday season in the UK and I can tell you it's unbelievably chaotic. I am dreading Easter... Bear in mind the UK has been effectively "ops normal" for many months now. We don't even need to submit any PLFs or do any rip off testing. To get through security at Manchester, it's taking passengers 2-3 hours. British Airways at T5 last weekend was a mess. ATC are actually issuing CTOTs again causing delays. My bag didn't make the flight from LHR to LIS. It didn't get to me for 48 hours. I was glad I was doing ground instructor work and not flying. (A big shout out to the Apple AirTag, I knew where my bag was before BA could tell me).
I'm a gold member with British Airways too. Oh, I did get an apology but that didn't really cut it to be honest.
Both British Airways and easyJet have cancelled hundreds of flights citing COVID illness but now they are admitting that there is a severe staffing issue. They cut heavily in 2020 and have failed to attract them back.
Pilots are not turning up for initial courses (better offers elsewhere) and the cabin crew are walking off the job for the same reason.