Howdy 404 - you been away?
Aus DEFO will get $10K per month plus 15.5%. Correct me if I am wrong but year 1 SO gets $35K HKD/month plus 15.5%. So after tax I would guess about $7K for the Oz guy and just over $30K(say $5K AUD) for HKG guy. I can assure from personal experience that the CoL is considerably higher in HKG than Oz when you have a family.
You should know better than to disagree with me on numbers;-)
The DEFO can come up to HKG in 3(or 4?) years and he will be on almost SFO salary and able to use housing allowance to buy a place if he wishes. The only way a HKG based SO can be better off is if he buys a place at the 2 year mark! After 4 years in the company he is now on JFO or FO1 whilst the DEFO is on FO4/SFO1 either on the base still or in HKG.
So I still assert that you are financially better off joining as a DEFO.