Sealear,
The payoff for living in a place such as the Middle East was very good terms and conditions that the airline had. It was a balance - to most moving to Dubai was a step back from their own country, but it was made up for by the package: the money, the rostering, the staff travel, the upgrade time.
Those things (perhaps with the exception of the money, just depending on perspective) have gone.
Feel free to leave Australia and Virgin Australia and come to the Middle East to fly for EK. When you have passed through the initial starry-eyed, exciting phase feel free to comment here. But until you have, how about you don't tell those who are living in the Middle East to pull their heads in, while you sit in your very free, very beautiful, very liveable country flying for your unionised Airline?