That someone would be incorrect. If you're below the cut-off, you're below the cutoff.
That being said, cutoffs do vary from year to year, so you may get in. If there are less people applying for Law at "Newy" (I'm not sure whether that's New England or Newcastle), then the cutoff will...
You got tricked? You got tricked by calculators that likely had disclaimers saying something along the lines of: "the owners make no representations as to the accuracy of said ATAR calculator".
No -smart- person seriously thinks that what an ATAR calculator spits out should be taken as gospel...
Whilst I wouldn't say 'fuck the HSC', I'd say that four months on from the HSC, you realise how little it does matter.
Two years on, I realise I could have probably been a lot less highly strung in Year 12....
In Comm, if you get shortlisted, chances are you'll get it.
In Arts, not so much - I got shortlisted, but I didn't get it.
There's more money in Comm, so they can afford more scholarships....
Re: do UNSW commerce people look down on Macq commerce people (honestly)??
Do they look down upon Macq? Probably.
Should they? Probably not.
As Azure and kaz1 said - it doesn't really matter. It is a good uni, particularly for actuarial (or so I've been told).