I had a Private Tax Ruling issued on this question 2 years ago. I am an Australian Resident for tax purposes on equal time tours and the end result is I don't have to pay Australian tax on foreign income, although it still has to be declared in my annual tax return. Foreign income does however have an affect on my marginal rate of tax for other income derived in Australia (eg rental income, interest, etc). Basically I lose my tax free threshold and have an average rate of tax applied to all my Australian derived income.