I can't really speak for Australia but a lot of airlines in the UK seem to be favouring those who DON'T have flying experience, or at least don't rely on the experience to get them through the interviews. If you search most threads here, experienced people have been knocked back by all sorts of airlines like Zoom, Silverjet, QFUK, NZUK, Virgin Atlantic. Even BA are knocking back some people with experience. I think the logic behind it is that there is less to de-program during the training and once online. There is nothing worse than flying with someone who goes on 'at blah blah airline we did this, at blah blah airlines we did that'. Not saying that YOU would do this but I am thinking this could be part of their logic.