Damo, if you applied for the cadetship, then you must also be a snotty rich kid.
It goes without saying that probably a large proportion of guys/gals who took the GA path applied for the Qantas cadetship or thought about it at some stage, and the ones who complain about cadets are obviously the ones who did not get in. If given the opportunity for the cadetship, I'm sure they would have most likely accepted it.
Jealousy is a wonderful thing. Going through the cadet program itself is not easy and cadets do it hard themselves. They are required to perform to a very high standard set from Qantas and go through rigorous training. The hard yards are done by all, only in a different way.
Not all cadets have rich parents. Can we also go saying that all pilots are snotty rich kids?... seeing as flight training is so expensive. Some may be, some aren't and have done the so-called "hard yards" saving up for flight training. Same goes with cadets, they have worked hard to be able to afford an opportunity of a lifetime. Not all cadets are fresh out of school. Some have left big things behind and taken enormous risks to follow their dream to fly.
We need to respect the fact that there is more than one way to get an airline job and each and every person is different, has a unique background, experience and life story. After all with the kind of attitude you have with generalisation, good luck in a multicrew environment working with different guys/gals day in and out. Are you going to judge someone else by the way they got into the airline or are you going to sit down, shutup and do the job?
The fact is every job in the world has varying career paths, whether you do your training through tafe, uni, private college or just get the plain old hands on experience.
Get over it!