What is interesting in all of this is that QF (who have pretty good terms and conditions albeit not world beating and they can always do better) have been caught in the perfect storm of LCCs like Virgin and Jetstar, and the regionals of all failing to pay decent money.
One of the reasons that many people put up with the less than optimal terms and conditions in the regionals for a period of time is because they know that when they hit the jackpot and crack an airline job that the pay will make up for all the bad years. That jackpot no longer exists because those terms and conditions at the other two 'majors' just isn't worth it- at least according to the many young people that I deal with in my 'other' job. So Qantas (as in Flight Ops) hasn't really caused this but Qantas (as in the airline) has certainly contributed to it by persisting with the J* terms and conditions and by failing to give their regional drivers terms and conditions that will see young people enter the industry.
Chris et al see the solution of making the training cheaper and that is certainly part of it but until you can guarantee a graduate of the flight school that if they get a job that they'll be on $40K or more (as most engineers are when they graduate from uni) then we're going to continue to see young people disengage from aviation as a career choice.
What frustrates me is that none of the journo's (this means you Gerard Frawley, Steve Creedy, Geoff Thomas, Ben Sandilands, etc) bother looking at that angle. I note that Gerard Frawley in this month's Australian Aviation quotes aircraft (of all people
) in his editorial and yet doesn't even get to the heart of the matter that without decent paying gigs, people just won't invest the money required to be a pilot.
Perhaps the real issues are beyond them, just as it appears the real issues are beyond the likes of Jim Davis and every other manager that is struggling to find pilots. Reap what you sow boys.