Where does this 180days figure come from? was looking at this option a while back and the ATO site refers to exempt foreign income being in continuous blocks of at least 91 days. Even then, exempt income still has to be declared so your Oz income can be taxed at the appropriately high rate. You can return to oz on a short break but the stay cannot be considered as an extended break which is more than 1/6th of the period. Not an accountant but it looks pretty straightforward that you can't get out of ox tax if you live here. If your living in NZ working in HK I guess your not an OZ resident for tax and your stays would be short enough not to attract tax.