Have to admit that when I saw this thread, I thought "Gawd, I hope no one mentions the war (i.e., the whole reason for the picnic), or the mods will bin the thread".
The business of individual contracts is a pit like politics - timing is everything, and in 198-you-know-when, our timing was off - way off. And sadly, the vast majority of today's post '89 Australian pilots, some of the mods here included, seem hell bent on not learning a thing from history.
Some (most, it would seem) may choose to ignore it, but when you look at the state of the aviation industry in Australia today, the 24th of August 1989 was probably the most important landmark in Australian aviation in the 20 years either side of that date. It, and what followed over the nine months immediately afterwards, has undeniably set the standard for terms and conditions that any pilot flying - or aspiring to fly - professionally in Australia must exist under today and for the foreseeable future.
And it ain't a pretty picture.
Apologies to some if I've just caused this thread too to be binned. Blame it on three glasses of wine.