Lots of reasons as to why this occurs. Unfortunately, in the Oz industry, there are lots of companies and individuals who treat others like garbage and do not aim for best practice. Aside from a few innovative and profesisonal companies, and the corporates with money, Oz is littered with way too many old clapped out machines and to add to this, many aircrew are often underpaid and overworked and treated like trash. There are great companies such as CHC and Bristows, for which many people aspire to work with.
However, the vast majority of people spend their careers trying to find an employer who will maintain the machinary properly, pay enough to survive on (which is quite often a below average wage) and be treated like a person, not a commodity who is raped for everything they are worth. Many companies pay pilots with bare licences not more than $10-15US to start and they often work 60-70hrs a week. This does not improve that much until people have enough hrs to go to a large offshore company. The inbetween guys still do not earn much and the machines they fly are often 20-30 years of age.
The offshore market is one of only a rare few who pays enough for the average guy to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. Our Government do not help with hefty fees for almost anything related to flying, with the impost of this borne by many aircrew.
These are but some of the reasons why many people in Oz complain. There are a lot of companies and managers who abuse their staff and do not set a good reputation anywhere for anything. Sure, there people with too much time on their hands, however the Australian industry is not really one to be celebrated. A few people, such as Bristows, CHC, EMQ (Queensland Government) have some initiative and put the best foot forward - but many also knock those who try and we sometimes suffer from tall poppy syndrome.
Maybe if we tried not undercutting all the time on jobs and everyone charged a fair rate, the industry would be much better overall. But the chronic effect of this is being felt by everyone everywhere and its the root cause of most problems within the indusrty.
That is my 2 cents worth anyway.
Over to anyone else....