ramius315 is on the money. I reckon that they've had the idea of these job cuts for quite a while and were waiting for the right time to announce them. Sure, things are tough but this announcement, today, is about keeping the pressure on the government and creating the narrative.
Heck, remember a couple of years back and the interview with Olivia Wirth? She talked about this exact thing. She talked about the importance of the 'story that they are selling' or similar words. She talked about how poorly Dixon did with the engineers in 2008 and she war gamed how they could do it better in 2011. I think the interview was in the weekend Australian or similar?
Anyway, things aren't great but this is about more than today and tomorrow and next month. This is about next year and the year after and getting better depreciation on aeroplanes and all those other things that will make AJ look like a genius in a few years time.