Frozo
Don't you dare play the victim. To an extent I felt you were trolling with your posts, but you couldn't resist the occassional jibe at a profession you know nothing about. Insecurity, or fanning the flames, had you always adding how better off you would be outside of professional aviation when you left the services, due your academic qualifications- forgive my assumption, but ADFA boys make great school teachers if I can steer you in a vocational direction.
In the civilian world at the moment, you have to bite, scratch and pull hair to maintain conditions. This is not anything to do with skills sets, it is the way management conduct business. The only defence not tried against such aggression is unification of pilot groups. This is not socialism at all.
An airline committed individual in Oz, has no choice but to accept the conditions of service negotiated or accepted by a contemporary pilot group- for example the bogus concept of paying for your airline training. Again, the only untried defence against eroding conditons is some sort of unification by the current pilot group.