Zerc,
staffing is getting a bit short, particularly in Melbourne (or so I hear). There are ab-initios coming in the door but they are only just keeping up with those leaving, and with the looming retirement hump and increasing numbers jumping ship it will get pretty tight from mid year on. HR (and Canberra based managers) are telling you different because of;
1. the continuing antipathy towards ex employees who dared to go overseas
2. an apparent policy of using overtime to cover staffing shortages, in the mistaken belief that it is cheaper in the long run
3. under estimation of leave required to cover the age groups that are having babies and those that are going non operational because of health issues as they hit their fifties.
Basically there seems to have been a bad decision made somewhere and no-one is going to admit it.
This is of course mere idle gossip.
Bo-aggs