Yep, my bet would be that the tie up would mean Emirates has a ready made domestic feeder in Australia and New Zealand. Both these populations spend a lot of money on international travel and are also massive tourist markets. Unlike most other countries (UK etc.) Emirates is very limited in which airports it can fly into. In the UK, Emirates flys from LHR, LGW, BHX, NCL, MAN, EDI, GLW etc.. they don't need the feeder network as they fly from the regions.
This isn't possible in Australasia due to our poor regional facilities. in return for giving Qantas international a few concessions on a few routes they will gain an entire domestic network. Trust me, if this does happen there must be a big up side for Emirates as they are not renound for doing anything out of the goodness of their hearts.