I know someone who was rung up to attend an interview and testing. Not sure how it went. About mid-oct.
The rex cadetship however seems strange to me. The absence of any real information about the program just doesn't seem right. How many icus hours could you expect to get in five years? I'm certainly not an expert but i don't think co-pilot hours will get you the min requirements for any decent airline - you need command hours. Can, or will, rex get you min command-hours in five years to apply to airlines?
Qantas scheme just seems a lot more credible - tells you in plain english what it entails. And if you don't get to stage 2 you'll still have a cpl, mecir, atpl sub'j, etc.
No matter what however it'll cost you at least $80k and a couple years making little money before you will be in any decent airline. the cadetships may make it easier in a planning sense (and initial $$$ for rex) to get their but GA certainly isn't a bad option - i'm sure it would be a better experience than flying rpt for your entire career.
It however does certainly come down to money. I'm lucky and have a loan from my parents which makes me very privileged to be able to pay to get my license. However the only other option has typically been the military, rex does offer people, who otherwise couldn't afford it, the opportunity to fly - which is a good thing.
You would think however that the government would allow a cpl course to be included on HECS - they pump out enough money for BA's which, by themselves, provides the country with no real job-oriented work (apart from the obvious 'do you want fries with that?'). Anyway just my grumblings.