Keg, your own words give it away:
QLink pilots (and other internal candidates) are being recruited into mainline in numbers that far exceed their ratio of total applicants.
I'm not talking about Network, J*, or Cobham. Just Turboprop.
Anyway, how would you know? You're seeing it from the mainline side. I saw it from the Turboprop side. When Qlink pilots applied to airlines like Cathay and Emirates the acceptance rate was well over 95%. Only TWO Qlink pilots were unsuccessful (one at each). Compared with Qantas, where only 51% of the Qlink pilots were successful. Qantas feedback saying why pilots were unsuccessful into mainline included "Sitting too aggressively at the interview" and "Not having enough customer focus" (both told to Captains).
One third of the 2008/2009 Cadets were told "no" when they re-applied a few years ago. These were people who'd already been accepted into mainline and were waiting for start dates back then, many of them were also Captains. The ONLY reason that Qlink pilots were made eligible AT ALL was to slow down the outpouring of Turboprop guys and girls to other airlines.
There are pilots at Qlink who were successful at their Qantas interviews TWO YEARS AGO who are still at Qlink because their start dates are still later this year.
New pilots joining Qlink are told that they're not allowed to apply for other Qantas group positions for at least two years.
No, no bias against them at all...