If true, they may well find employing foreign DECs won't save them any money. In fact in some cases it will end in tears when they find that the extra time waiting for the candidates to pass the IREX plus time taken to standardise to our rather unique way (for 'unique' read 'complicated just because this is Australia.....') wasn't worth the effort. Ultimately it is CASA in cahoots with the Check & Training Department that drives this stuff, not the beancounters - even though they like to think they are in control.
A competent Metro Captain should easily master an ATR 72 after a standard simulator course then 50 hours of ICUS. If he/she can't, then that pilot is either below average, lacking real-world experience, or the C & T people have made it too complex for what it really is (flying from A to B without frightening the horses) and may need to re-think.
I see another start-up also encouraging foreigners to apply under the 457 visa programme to fly their small jets because they would appear to think it will save money on type endorsements (I may be wrong in this assumption - it could be some misguided insurance requirement). Ditto, any competent pilot with some medium-sized corporate jet time would have no trouble on that type.