Not trying to take a shot at Australian ATC - I'm sure you (like us) are all working within constraints imposed by others. I also accept the point re last minute changes to the sequence, go-rounds etc, but humour me if you will.
I have probably been into JFK more than two dozen times and always arriving around 5pm local time (peak hour). In those two dozen times, I think I have been put in the holding pattern precisely twice. Granted that there is usually extensive vectoring in the Terminal Area, but I have also been given enroute speed instructions when not even half-way across the US that suggest that the JFK sequence is being worked on more than two hours out from the destination. Does anyone in the ATC world have knowledge of how the US system works compared to Australia, and why a sequence can be worked on two hours in advance into one of the busiest airports in the world, yet in Australia it happens at 200nm?
I also remember tracking through western Queensland very early one morning soon after the very short-lived ALOFT system (remember that one) had been scrapped. I asked the controller if the sequence into Sydney was being worked on yet and his response was "No ... the Flow doesn't start work till 5!" I must say that I had a bit of a chuckle about that one.
Once again, can I re-iterate that I am not taking shots here. I am genuinely intrigued as to how the US and AUS systems differ.