Victor Two, the sheep are the Board and Senior Management of Qantas who do not understand reality.
Chinese minimum wages grew 22% this year.
China's minimum wage shows average increase of 22% this year
If you extrapolate that trend and combine it with the inevitable decision to float the Yuan instead of keeping it pegged ludicrously low, then your costs of offshoring and outsourcing to China are only going to rise in future.
From my own experience as a senior manager in an outsourcing operation, once Qantas puts all its eggs in the outsourcing basket by closing/downsizing the remainder of its heavy maintenance facilities, the MRO's will raise their prices - negating any outsourcing advantage.
Then there is the issue of losing control of a core competency - for example outsourcing RB211 maintenance was such a good move wasn't it? A double engine shutdown on a B747 is now on the cards.
The net effect of all this is that once the Board realises that outsourcing has not only cost them money, but surrendered control of core competencies, and with it the Qantas reputation for safety and reliability, then they will have to bring these functions back on shore, and I don't think the airline has the capital to allow that to happen.
I've watched this cyclical behavior play out in the IT industry many times.