Suddentwang
I also am appalled at your assertion that QF pilots mounted a campaign to have the ATO tax pilots for foreign airline who reside in Australia. We envied your status but most of the discussion (bar talk) centred around how we could achieve such a position for ourselves eg be employed by a QF subsidiary based in an overseas tax haven. All avenues that were investigated found no legal way for us to achieve the same position as the CX,SQ, etc pilots living in OZ. At no stage was there any attempt to change the tax status of the pilots employed overseas.
I have no evidence of this but I believe that when Paul Keating was PM, his government offered incentives to CX to base their mainframe computer complex and Flight Simulator centre in Australia. One of these incentives was to permit CX pilots to reside in OZ on permanent basings but would be treated by the ATO as domiciled in HKG. The benefit for CX was that pilots who took up these basings would no longer receive rental subsidies and free education for their children - a saving of a considerable amount of money. CX did install their mainframe computer complex in NW Sydney, however, elected to put their Flight Simulator complex at the new airport in HKG. During subsequent years, other airlines have been able to attract pilots from OZ by establishing bases here (at a considerable saving in expat type costs).
I suspect that senior beaurocrats at the ATO, being aware of the inequities of these pilots (& their families) using all the infrastructure that tax money has provided for the residents of Australia, have waited an "appropriate" amount of time since the departure of the Keating government and have now made the changes as detailed above.
QF PILOTS DID NOT LOBBY FOR THESE CHANGES AND QUESTIONS TO AN ACCOUNTANT/TAX AGENT ABOUT WHY SOME CAN GET AWAY WITH IT WHILE OTHERS CAN'T IS NOT LOBBYING.
I hate the tall poppy attitude that frequently raises its head as I believe that there should be people achieving better pay & conditions so that the rest of us can use them as examples to improve our own lot. If we bring them back to the Lowest Common Denominator then we won't be able to negotiate a better position for ourselves. GB