The ADF difference is largely that pilot experience and progress is carefully managed both during and after initial qualification.
In addition to factors already mentioned above, the RAAF system is highly structured towards pilot progression after wings and supervised at every stage. There is a categorization system where pilots move through levels of qualifications by aircraft type, and this is linked to increasing experience. Then there is continual personal supervision by flight commanders and other execs, and overlaying nearly every flight is an an authorization process where aspects such as crew qualification, experience and risk factors are double checked, advice is given and changes sometimes made by a separate approved supervisor before the task is allowed to occur.
There is no way that such a process could be replicated in an airline without extraordinary managerial change and cost. For the Rex CP to make an analogy like this is naive at best.