Low and Fast:
I can't say I disagree with much of what you are saying. There does now seem to be an element of 'pay for job schemes'. Gone are the days where QF was the only operator that had a renowned and respected cadet scheme... now everyone wants in on the action.
Having said that, with regards to:
There is no shortage of qualified and suitable applicants in Australia, I personally no of many pilots that can't get a look in or are stuck on hold files
I was speaking to 3 different training/checking captains from 2 different airlines recently, all of whom, to my surprise, said that of all of the new pilots to come through their respective companies in the last 18 months (cadet scheme vs GA), by far the ones with the most difficulty have been those from GA. By no means were they implying that all GA operators were poor, far from it... They simply said they've had less problems getting cadet/trainee pilots up to standard for the line than they have GA pilots. I must admit I was a bit surprised.
Not my words, theirs. And they were surprised too.