Surely you don't believe the doctors might be misleading us when they say that their pay raise wouldn't cover inflation?
$160,000,000 pay offer/5,500 senior doctors and dentists = $29,029 average pay increase. This means that for them to offered an average of $29,090 PA, at 3% inflation, they are on an average of just under $970,000 PA. If the average they were on was $750,000 PA, then they are working out at an inflation figure of just under 4% to get an average increase of $29,090... since they say they're effectively taking a pay cut when you consider what has been offered to inflation.
Go down to the average being $500,000 PA, and that works out it 5.8% inflation (29,029/500,000 x 100 = 5.8%).
Go down to the average being $250,000 PA and that works out at 11.6% inflation (29,029/250,000 x 100 = 11.6%).
Go down to the average being $200,000 PA and that works out at 14.5% inflation.
So, if they think they are "right" with what they're saying, it's good they decided to become doctors and dentists and not accountants or economists!!!
You're also forgetting that the SMO's also includes surgeons, cardiologists, neurosurgeons, oncologists etc. It's not the "senior doctor" on the ward... these are the top specialists in their fields.