I am deaf to the argument about more experience needs more money. Might have worked 30 years ago but not now. In any case where are they going to go anyway. I suspect QF top pay scales are probably the highest in the world. Why?
Well, for LAME's there are many airlines in the middle east and asia offering more money than Qantas. We are talking about about $20k to $40k more with the current exchange rate at $0.90. At virgin their LAME's earn more than Qantas LAME's.