I am absolutly sick to death of seeing all the rubbish written in this topic.
The ONLY reason Australians ( or Brits or Yanks or Kiwis ) are working in EK, GA, CX, KA, KE, SQ etc etc etc etc is because those Airlines CANNOT find enough locals to FILL the seats. END OF STORY FULL BLOODY STOP.
As soon as CX figure out a way to get enough locals ( a believe me Mr Chen tried damn hard ) to fill my seat I'LL BE GONE.
As an Australian I CANNOT work in the EU or the U.S. unless I have already have a visa. I CANNOT get SPONSORED by ANY employer as they cannot prove to their immigration department they need me. ( they don't, there is enough Locals to fill the positions )
All of the Australians working in the UK ( for eg ) since 1989 had right of abode or passport through family BEFORE they got their jobs and they were NOT sponsored by their employer.
Let me say that again............WERE NOT SPONSORED BY THEIR EMPLOYER
So stop all the anti-Australian BS being written here ok?
There are plenty of young qualified Australians IN Australia that can fill any Pilot seats. So the Australian Airlines DO NOT need to look overseas.
IF there were no Australians available then I would have NO objection to 457 Visa's being granted.
The AFAP was perfectly justified and correct in asking the question in the middle East forum.