What was the official reason REX and Skywest used for the 457 visas ?
They pushed the Type Rating really hard. In that they considered anybody who had not flown the their type as not being experienced enough to fly for them. They effectively isolated everybody's experience to the aircraft you are currently flying. As a result a whole bunch of foreigners who had never flown in Australia and some of which had total times sub 1000 ended up taking Australian jobs because they had a rating despite there being more experienced pilots in Australia it's just they didn't have a particular rating. Have a browse through the ATSB database and maybe this website to see how well that experiment worked out.
Very same thing could happen again with the ATPL. People can't afford to get the license or want the airlines to pay, Airlines require the ATPL, they claim they can't get anyone so the government could open the doors to foreign pilots because Australians aren't qualified and foreigners bypass all CASA bureaucracy and expense. Effectively killing the industry in one easy step.
Das Uber's right. What is the point of an ATPL flight test when you get tested on everything anyway and you are at the behest of an AOC holding who is also tested by CASA?