Paxboy/Wunwing - the casualization and the myopic race to the bottom stuff have given rise to changes in many areas; most have not been for the betterment of aviation safety - however, many of the refuellers are in fact very experienced and many do have strong aviation backgrounds.
Walking around you do see some ramp crews that need more than a refresher in safe thinking and you also see some that have an excellent safety attitude. For example, there's a young bloke refuelling in BNE that is excellent and he has the eyes of a hawk and a passion for safety- he even shut down the refuel when another vehicle came too close at speed.
Think it is important that we don't 'brand' all airside on casual contracts as being of a lesser mindset - rather, we should to focus on the primary causal factors which are the wilful 'cascade of reduced obligation' and 'delineated liability' by operators through shelf organisations and remote labour hire. It is this fragmentation that creates gaps in policy, procedures and risk.
Kind thoughts to all those affected by this incident