My folks vs Me - need your advice!
There are no airline "careers" left out there that will provide a good income. Most airlines are no longer organizations that you would event want to work for due to their attitude towards staff.
I agree with all the comments above regarding the RAAF. It is also worth considering that down the road if you wish to get away from engineering or flying they may well allow you to re-train in medicine, law etc.
Cadetships are becoming the preference for airlines for a variety of reasons. You will not learn much about flying from one of these courses. New pilots learn about flying by doing real flying in GA or the RAAF not sitting in an airliner doing the same thing every day.
The only way you should even consider the cadet path is if you are not successful with the RAAF and/or you do not wish to spend lots of money. In that case CX is the only cadetship that I am aware of that is free, but have a good read of the HK forums about its own issues.
Bottom line: use you engineering skills to earn and fly for fun.