They cant employ cheap ass workers from asia to fly Australian registered planes?
That's precisely the devious twist. They are off-shoring to somewhere there is no suitable labour. They are moving the
job and the worker. Australian pilots will still be flying VH register aircraft, but employed in another country. This is probably more about saving the PAYE income tax than anything else. Moving to a more "friendly" IR & regulatory enviroment is icing on the cake. This is a new twist on labour arbitrage, the concept of
moving both the job and the worker.
They
need Australians so there is no pesky problems with work visa's or licences, you are absolutely correct. They are then free to employ the lowest experienced AU crew they can, or already have in debt bondage through the cadet system.