dare to venture offshore and you'll discover a few home truths. It doesn't take 500 baron hours to fly a metro, infact 500 co-pilot hours in the machine would be much more appropriate.
It is true that in certain significant parts of the world the experience requirements, while still important, are significantly lower. This raises some questions; Are the requirements in Australia (some of the highest worldwide) really a matter of safety? Or are they where they are because of the mass of pilots vying for limited positions. There is no doubt that experience matters, infact its the easiest measure of a pilot's suitability to a particular position. You can't really be too experienced (and I mean this in its most simplistic). At what point does a company increase its requirements simply to cull applicants?
I do not profess to know the ins and outs of some of the aforementioned operators. I do, however, remember many years ago similar discussions, when experience requirements were higher (even for said metro operators). Why have the requirements dropped? Is this now a safety concern? Doubtful.
I could write a novel about times of high workload, doesn't really answer the question. The fact is, Australia has higher requirements than many other countries with the same operations, countries who haven't a greater air accident rate than our own fair land. This speaks for itself...