Despite the cryings of people such as Geoff Dixon, QANTAS and other Australian airlines are making very large profits. Therefore, it is only reasonable that the people involved in this industry also make good money. Therefore, as a whole, the airline industry has a much higher wage scale than most other industries.
It isn't fair to then compare these wages to other, non-profit areas like education (as one person did). Compare the salary of a baggage handler to a storeperson. Both work shifts and both have a lot of manual lifting involved. The storeperson is probably lucky to bring home 30-35K while the baggage handler can comfortably make 55-60K.
My point is, if QANTAS is making hundreds of millions in profits each year, isn't it reasonable that the employees who are working to make these profits earn a share of this money? Or do you feel it is only right for this money to be shared amongst the share holders and the upper management?