There could lie the issue - I hope not, but it seems very likely now. QF clearly have been talking to the government and are bullish because they seem to know things many other airlines don't. Other airlines haven't effectively cancelled all flights till Q1 next year for no reason.
If this is indeed true (that QF is in the know and other airlines are not), this bodes badly for any of us wanting to fly to Aus on other airlines. What I read from this is that the government is planning to relax travel rules and quarantine restrictions for people coming from a handful of countries, that will arrive into Aus on QF (direct flight) only.
This rules out many thousands of Aussies from being able to come home anytime soon, and all the other airlines, I imagine will react furiously to this because of what they've done for Australia in the past 18 months.