The Jetstar response is a classic case of dissembling.
Their quote of
So it is simply not representative or meaningful to imply ab initio pilots receive “200 hours training”.
is simple misdirection. That is not what was said. PVDH's article referred to
200 hours of flying
. If you believe the Jetstar response then these cadets are going to have 1000 hours of flying followed by close supervision.
That is not true. They will have 200 hours of flying when they first fly with paying passengers. The other 800 hours comes from ground training as part of the course and counts for virtually nothing in the real world.
It should read, "these pilots will have 200 hours flying followed by close supervision of training captains on revenue flights."