It's a generalisation ....
The point I was trying to make was that ... Qantas don't want to pay an Australian salary, no mater how big or small it is. They don't care if it's bigger than Cathay or smaller than Emirates. that's all just smokescreen. They just don't want to pay it.
They want to pay an Asian salary..
If the Qantas pilots said to management right now ... "we don't want a pay rise, in fact, we'll take a 2% decrease" ... Qantas would still not want to pay it.