Well argued and quite correct Murgatroid. EK, SQ and to a lesser extent CX are all keen to create a 'home market' out of Australia as they don't really have one of their own. EK and SQ essentially have no travelling public so Australia presents a great market of relatively wealthy, frequent travellers at one end of the hub.
QF won't last long if EK and SQ are given unfettered access to Oz markets. The cost base of much of their labour is so low QF could never compete. For example the catering staff recently had a go slow in Dubai. A very brave thing for them to do becaues it will certainly have meant that many will have lost their jobs. They were asking for a pay raise from their present rate of Dh 500/month. That's A$182 per month. They were given the generous amount of Dh4/month and took exception.
Safety is an issue as well. In Dubai the regulator allows much more latitude in their interpretation of the FTLs than the pilot group/regulator in Australia.
QF needs to improve in many areas to compete but the nature of the governments of Dubai and Singapore and their attitude to the workers in their companies mean the the odds are stacked firmly in their favour.