The benefits of moving Qantas maintenance and overhaul overseas, from a management perspective include:
1) Qantas engineering management is not required to demonstrate any in depth knowledge of maintenance practices, procedures or strategies, Any potential incompetence or negligence on their part can be conveniently masked by reference to the MRO, which will take the blame...for a price.
2) A good MRO marketing team will stroke, massage and titillate the Qantas Engineering Management team as far as is legally possible. They will also be on the lookout for any vices (gluttony, etc.) displayed by the managment team and attempt to satisfy them as well as far as is legally possible. This is an extremely pleasant situation for a manager to find themselves.
3) The Engineering management team will never become bored because of the tremendous and pleasant travel opportunities a good overseas MRO will continuously generate for them. These will include not only visits to the MRO's facilities, but an endless string of conferences, meetings and information sessions at stellar tourism locations.
Compared to sitting in an office close to a hangar and perhaps having to deal occasionally with people who have dirt under their fingernails, more real experience than you can ever hope for and who do not hang on your every word, outsourcing to an overseas MRO is a wet dream.*
*And yes, I've had it all tried on me at various times. I almost weakend when told by the outsourcer " We are having a conference in New York Two weeks from now and we really think it would be good for you to be there."