AnQrKa,
You are right the demise of Ansett was a very complex drama with a number of actors - Australian Government, BIL, Murdoch, Qantas, Ansett themselves as well as Air New Zealand. However this thread is about the latter and the company is quite different to the Toomey (and those who came before) days.
Back on topic though, will downgrades on the fleet mean only a change in allowances etc? Surely base pay would take a cut too.