Serious Question

I have always wondered why Australia dont select players who play over here for the national side , i know that the pool of players is very strong in the NRL but over the years quite a few very good Aussie players have come over to Superleague thus ending any international ambitions in doing so.

NZ select british based players so why dont AUS especially with the 4 nations played every other year here why not select players playing here ?

I beleive that it is just a recent thing (last 10 years or so) as they used to pick players from all leagues but now only those who play in the NRL.

I beleive it's done as a means to discourage the elite Australian players from plying their trade across the world. Not sure of any official rule in place.

It's an intresting question that i'm not sure of the answer. Agree slightly with K, the only other reason that i can think of is that they view SL as a slightly easier compotion.
Though it's only recently that we are getting younger test quality players.
To be fair the kiwis only pick Leaulie, and i'm not sure why as Luke is better in my opinion.