Over the past 3-4 years the only options with QF have been fixed term or casual for people off the street, this was because QF wanted to reduce the number of permanent employees etc etc.
However, now with the new Industrial Relations Laws QF can effectively recruit new crew and offer them a Workplace Agreement. This agreement will cover the basics such as salary, sick leave, holidays and it may also include a few things specific to the role of cabin crew such as duty hours etc.
In the past if QF were offering permanent it was under the short haul EBA this is no longer a requirement as it is now law that a workplace agreement can be offered instead. Therefore instead of working under an EBA (which is a small book) your working life will be governed by your AWA (Australian Workplace Agreement) which could be 3 pages tops. As an example your salary could be $30K per year including all allowances. Im not sure how much if any union involvement is allowed when you negotiate your AWA with your employer in this case Qantas. I think though their input would be NIL considering thats why the laws were introduced.
If Qantas go down this path they will have a standard AWA for all new short haul crew it will be exactly same just different expiry dates depending on when you join. As senority and bidding is part of the EBA I dont think anyone working under an AWA will be able to benefit from these but you never know.
So now these new options are available to Qantas it will be interesting to see if they intend to go in this direction. Considering Qantas was very vocal in pushing for these changes and even donated a substantial amount of $$ to the Australian Business Council to promote these changes I dare say there is a very good chance this will be the case.