So passengers who connect from Gatwick, Manchester, Frankfurt, Paris and Milan on EK can have an immediate QF flight to Sydney and Melbourne. But from all the other myriad EK destinations, they'll have a long transit going in either direction.
Oh wait - EK have A380s departing for Sydney and Melbourne at about the same time. So that whole exotic European network works best if you fly EK all the way!
So, remind me again clever people, why is QF doing this? I don't get it, but then what do I know!