Well personally I think it's a big mistake for QF to go down the road of cheap labour and high staff turnover. You cannot give someone a job they have no pride in and don't like doing and expect them to fly the flag of "worlds most experienced" & "premium" airline at the same time.
Nothing can ever cover up the fact that someone doesn't like being there or resents the conditions of their employment. You can't make it policy for someone to love their passengers, what they do and their employer. That is something that has to come from within and is born out of people feeling personally valued.
If you take a mean stand towards your employees you'll get employees that will do everything in their power to perform their duties at the bare minimum, take every opportunity to rip the company off (in lieu of decent terms and conditions) and tell your customers that they are getting a crappy experience because of management. Not exactly the way to cultivate long term business.
While I understand the drive to create a more economically flexible workforce in challenging times if you push too far it will become a false economy. You can only trade on the excitement of a newcomer to the industry to shore up your customer service for so long.