Great stuff, hope it works out well for you
I just got asked if i would be interested in a contracting role and the daily rate sounds pretty good to me
If you work as a contractor who pays the super though
You pay the super. So if the client is offering you $800/day, Then it's $4000/wk.
Make sure you clarify in your negotiations whether the daily rate includes, or excludes a super portion. They will try and include to make it cheaper. I always got them to quote base daily + super. Never hurts to ask anyway, even though client may not go higher. If you can get them to go $800/day + super (then your daily rate effectively becomes $870/day).
Generally I work on a 45 week / year calculation to work out the equivalent permanent salary (as you do not get payed for these as a contractor).
4 weeks leave
2 week public holidays
1 week sick leave
So $4000 * 45 = $180K equivalent perm package. It's nice to look at your daily rate and multiply it my 52 weeks, but that's not going to happen. Some companies even force contractors to take a month off over Xmas/New Year.
If you go PAYG contracting, or through a management company, then they will take some off your daily rate to cover insurance, pay super, and then maybe $3-4/hr for their services.
I also liked negotiating hourly rates, rather than daily rates. Daily is good for the company, as if some overtime is required, your still on daily. On hourly, I could charge 45hrs some weeks.