Oneworld.com also confirms this date.
I don't see why BA cannot have an extensive aggreement with both QR and MH, eggs and one basket and all that. QR can provide good access to India, Pakistan, Middle East where there is huge demand from the UK. MH can provide links to South East Asia, again huge demand from the UK. Maybe BA can codeshare with both (and Cathay also) for Aussie traffic.
BA doesn't like extensive partnerships except for joint-ventures, but hopefully that changes.
MH provides decent coverage of SE Asia which is valuable, QF can still codeshare to Malaysia, Burma, Thailand and so on where EK is a poor option. MH already have a codeshare agreement with JAL for transpac flights and have codeshared with Cathay for years.