Unfortunately we are of a spoilt generation. We have not seen true recession or been through a serious depression and therefore we all have more money, more opportunity, and more means to get a good education.
This, in conjunction with the greed of the big universities, has meant a flood of graduates in all fields (not just engineering). There are very very few industries now that are booming in Australia where you are guaranteed a job, everywhere is competitive, so don't let that away you on Engineering. The only really stable choice of career at the moment imo is clinical medicine and even that is getting outrageously competitive.
Neither of our two major governments have done much to remedy this situation, and although this isn't just a problem specific to Australia, this country is falling behind on the innovation and development and design fronts in engineering, biotechnology, health, medical research, etc. We don't even have a Science minister for goodness sake; and here I was depending on the Liberal goverment to at least mean I have a job in Science or Engineering in 4 years time. So much for that!