Shame they are doing this, but, and i hate saying this, but you were all told of this outcome many months ago.
Its fine to wait for a job that guarenteed, its not fine to "expect" a job, especially here/qr as they dont care, they are not organised and view you as a higher paid slave and if you like to equate yourself to being a whimpering pilot slave with qr as the only option, then your placing all your eggs in one basket, so to say and setting yourself up for disappointment.
I would be all looking for any other opportunity while u wait.
In terms of hiring, the contracts are crap for fasttrack so's. applications have dropped substantially, and QR is trying to create an illusion of "competitiveness/hard-to-get-in" by not calling people and demanding higher hiring req's such as jet time and type ratings etc.
Until the a/c deliveries are constant and they have competent training managers that wont screw things up then they can afford to screw the hold file around.
They have more money than common sense and no ethics mostly.