1) The old-skool Qantas cadet scheme is indeed suspended. That has a lot to do with the recent arrival of this :
Pilot Cadet Program - Jetstar Airways .
I'm no Sherlock Holmes but I would imagine that the QF bean counters have noticed that there's no point in maintaining a free pilot training scheme, when you can outsource it to a pack of thieves like Oxford who appear to have a limitless supply of starry eyed kids falling all over themselves to pay $AU154,000 for it.
2) There's never ever been a pilot shortage in the history of Australia ever, except for a few short weeks in 1989
. At the entry level of 200-hour fresh CPL holders, there are thousands more wannabes than there are jobs at any given time. Anyone that tells you anything different is lying through their teeth and almost certainly works for a flying school.