From the original press release:
Australian Airlines today announced it would commence double daily services between Tokyo and Cairns from mid-2006.
and
We will take delivery of a sixth Boeing 767-300 in mid-2006 to accommodate this extra flying.
From an Operations point of view, AO have always planned on CNS - TKO starting mid year.
From a management perspective, the last I heard recently was that QF would fly CNS-TKO on behalf of AO from March. Why it has been set-up this way I am not sure, but it seems to be 'Commercial' smoke and mirrors going on. Whether its slots, marketing, branding, codeshare issues or whatever I dont know.