swh
The seniority anomaly that allowed this and the opening of the PER base at all is stashed away in the vault at CX City. It doesn't stand up to any real scrutiny. However, the suggestion that PER is no longer a viable base has been muted on more than one occassion. So these poor beggers might find themselves back in HKG sooner than they think ala CDG lads in 2012.
And before you ask "No" they will not be able to re-locate to another AUS base port.