Skywalker...always a pleasure!
Impulse/QFLink staff had their staff travel dates reset to the date we were bought by Qantas - so all prior service with Impulse was not recognised, including for the 7 year Business Class eligibility scheme.
The KEY difference between Southern and AO is that Southern was already party to the Career Progression Agreement, as covered by FAAA Domestic. True, small difference - both airlines were subsidiaries of QF. However, Southern crew brought across their seniority, etc. as part of the CPA. AO crew, by all accounts, are being treated as external applicants because years of service aren't being recognised for redundancy purposes, staff travel, or seniority. At this stage at least.
On that basis, that (in my eyes) makes AO crew external applicants. Although in both cases each airline was shutdown, AO crew weren't included into global seniority (a position maintained by QF, despite L/H FAAA's efforts).