I don't know a lot about the Australian aviation industry but there are some parallels with SAA, also massively loss making and ineptly run. SAA is run by and for the politicians who are currently the flavour of the month, I don't think the same applies to QF although JJ does seem to be a reject from the moron store.
Both derive their core business from longhaul routes, both are 'end of the route' with not much onward transfer traffic other than domestic and regional.