Black Belt,
What a jaundiced and distorted view you have!!
Airline cadet courses have been around in Australia since at least the very early 1960s.
Since the mid-1960s, cadet courses have provided the bulk of pilots for a large proportion of European and Asian airlines.
As to all those highly experienced ATPLs around ???
There is certainly in Australia a small pool of pilots that, for one reason or another, have ATPLs/ALTPs/ATRs, but in which most airlines have no interest, for a wide variety reasons, in my experience, that are quite valid.
There is a bigger pool of CPL holder who, in my experience, and for a wide variety of reasons, are unemployable outside the lower levels of Australian GA, or even there, in any event a segment of Australian aviation that is shrinking.
Tootle pip!!
PS: I bet you are no fan of the Multi Crew Pilot Licence, MPL??