If this is a qantas operated flight, ie qantas aircraft and qantas flight number, and qantas cancels a flight, you are entitled to be booked on the next available flight in the same cabin as originally booked. If award seats are available on the new flight… easy.
But if no award seats, the agent must select the lowest available ‘paid’ fare on the new flight in the relevant booking class. For example if you had an award flight cancelled, and the new flight had availability in J, C, and D class for business, the agent must book in D. If D was not available, the agent could book in C. And so on.
The policy applies to both paid and award tickets. The ‘exclusion’ covers a case where a passenger on a paid fare has had their flight cancelled, the policy says the lowest booking on a new flight cannot be in an award fare. So if you had paid a D class sale fare, and the flight was cancelled, if by some miracle there was award space in U available, that cannot be booked as an alternative. The agent must select a revenue fare basis. (If there is an award seat available there will almost certainly be a paid fare available.)
I believe the Points Hack article may have erred in the categorical statement that QF owes the same level of responsibility if a partner cancels. I would argue that while qantas does need to help, that standard is only ‘best endeavours’… which could simply be a request to the partner airline, which if it comes back as ‘no’ may satisfy their best endeavours if they have followed the stated procedure of going via the oneworld disruption desk.