Further to what the Green Goblin said, I work for one of the companies currently looking to employ pilots from overseas. The issue here is the timeframe for the training of new pilots.
No one doubts that all but maybe the worst 10% of pilots are able to be TRAINED into safe and proficient turboprop first officers and captains. The issue here is one of Training resources and the time taken to train pilots who dont have RPT turboprop experience. Its not simply the case that once these current vacancies get filled then its happy days and no more training of new pilots will be required. These companies need 10's of pilots per year and when you take sim endorsement, ground school and line training into account it takes a MINIMUM of 3 months to get a checked to line first officer at the other end. If you can get a type rated, experienced guy in (particularly a Captain) then it frees up your training resources to train new hires (aussies).
Now what happens when you have a new type to Australia? You cant fly them with 2 FO's up the front. So ideally you get maybe 10-15% of your initial pilot group as experienced type rated flight crew (captains) who can then filter this experience through to the new hires. Without this initial experience in operating a new type you are basically reinventing the wheel by learning all the tricks and idiosyncracies of the new aircraft.
Before everyone gets hysterical about how overseas pilots are 'taking our jobs' (cue South Park 'they took our jobs' skit) its a case of necessity otherwise routes and/or expansion plans come to a grinding halt. There will still be plenty of regional jobs for guys coming up throuhg GA mark my words!
