I would say 80% of the work I get is requests for a different accent other than my own! This is particularly true of animation and gaming work with Aussie accents are few and far between. But a lot of the time, it's for dubbing projects or commercial work.
But why not just hire a native speaker? I questioned this too initially, however I worked out that many native accents are regionalised and not very 'generic' if you're talking to a National or International audience. It's easier to adopt a generic (but not stereotypical) accent as a foreigner and apply that to a script. I once beat out at least 50 other voice actors for an Irish gig (ok so I'm a quater Irish so maybe that was it?!)
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