Anyone complaining about flying the ATR would surely be in the minority, and you'd have to be crazy to turn it down hoping for a DE 73 spot in in 2108 (or any other year). Also with the very low numbers bidding for the New Zealand spots that would indicate no one really cares about externals there either. However when it comes to Australian based flying there would be quite an uproar if they hired externally to fill those spots bypassing those already on the GDOJ with bids in the system. Just a humble opinion...
Anecdotally from what I hear, Goats estimates of the crew shortfall would be bang on the money. Of course I don't have a dog in this race...