If there was ever a time for the entire VA pilot group to be unified, now is that time.
No, that time has come & gone. It could be argued that VAA & VAI (Australia) sold out VAINZ when they allowed them on their seniority list on different T & C's & different FTL's. Doesn't anyone wonder why the company was pushing for this to come to pass? Of course they are going to grow VAINZ. VAINZ could well be the Virgin 'B' scale.
The NZ bases have little to do with domestic ops in NZ. The primary reason is two-fold. The Tasman is most efficiently flown when the A/C starts the day in NZ. JetStar, JetConnect, ANZ & Virgin are all testament to that. The other reason is that the Tasman has traditionally been a bloodbath of red ink over the decades. Any cost savings that can be achieved help to make the services viable. NZ salaries have always been lower than across the ditch & there is currently a significantly large difference in salaries between VAINZ & the Aussies. JB stated in a meeting in Auckland a few years back that if the VAINZ pilots wanted Australian pay he would close the whole operation down. Probably EBA tactics, but interesting none the less.
People go on about protection of Australian flying but, like management, they tend to be 'domestic centric'. Much of the island flying is actually Australian flying. The flights start in Australia & end there. BNE-VLI-BNE, BNE-NAN-BNE, SYD-NAN-SYD, MEL-NAN-MEL, etc. This flying hasn't been 'protected' & the thin edge of the wedge is well & truly in the door.
It will be interesting to see where things end up over the course of the next year or two.