HAHA, I too was in touch with the recruiters, I had 2000hrs and airline turbine time, I was told they had loads of guys with 3000-4000hrs etc waiting.
Just goes to show no matter what experience you have the excuse 'anti' just gets raised!
Re MEIR, tell you what, ring around the GA multi operators of NZ, there is only a handful(!), and find out just how much total time they want before they would take you on to fly multi for them!! There will be your proof.
It won't take long to go through a very small list, come back and post your results.