I rang HR connect today, and they said:
"2,001 people are being sifted for this competition"
Didn't really answer my question as I wanted to know how many are being interviewed in this round of interviews in June/July and she said "I believe it's 2,001", but that can't be right! Surely there's no way they'd be able to get through that many people in the first phase, doesn't seem right? I'm assuming it's 2,001 throughout the entire competition? But they could only give the info above she said.