Folks,
A few facts of life:
(1) Qantas group aircraft can be quite legally maintained anywhere suitably licensed by the local NAA, without CASA approval.
(2) Qantas group aircraft, VH registered, do not have to be based in Australia, and this is all quite a separate issue to the provisions of the Qantas privatisation restrictions, International Airservice Commission allocation of route rights/ capacity etc.
(3) There is provision in the Civil Aviation Act 1988 for Australia to enter into ICAO 83bis agreements.
(4) An 83bis agreement essentially allows a local NAA (say CAAS) to substitute for CASA in the provision of ICAO compliant administration of "the rules".
I am sure you can work out the rest of the calculation, and pilot salaries are almost a nil contributor to the whole cost/risk ( as in financial risk) equation.
Tootle pip!!