There is no one in Qantas IR who was around in 2003. Not a soul. Heck
The faces may have changed at QF, but heavy hitting consultants, Freehills and the like, have been used for a long time.
There has been an obsession with reducing pilot costs, which at mainline alone must be between $500 mil and a billion per year. They see it as the fat which still sits on the cost carcass. With game theory, long term planning and top law firms to implement (whom AIPA often struggles to match as they won't work for unions) they have achieved far past what they probably ever expected for IR in 2000. Only problem is, the pool of capable candidates to enter the industry dwindles year by year as the news seeps out about a modern career in aviation.