Honestly who cares, the Qantas Group is profitable
This is an interesting opinion, there is no crime that Qantas has committed, however we would posit the following important caveat:
Under Australian Accounting Standards cost (who pays for what) between segments, for example JQ and Qantas is pretty much up to management (within generous limits)
A threshold is set internally, otherwise a box of paperclips would need to be inter-segment accounted. Management decide where this threshold is.
It may be $100,000, it may be $1,000,000. There is no way to tell from the outside, but we would wager they know on the inside! At executive level, there would be regular 'robust' discussions about which segment is going to pay; between Mr Evans (at JQ) and whoever is the CEO of Qantas International now.....Who ultimately pays is a matter for the executive and that consists of the Chief decision 'makers' including the CEO. It is a company policy type decision!
Therefore without seeing these types of thresholds, which are not included in the Annual Report (nor are they required to be), there is no definitive way to ascertain how much this threshold affects a segment and its performance. The auditors merely ascertain that the company accounts are presented consistently as management said they would and the accounts apply with the standard.. This threshold is not a subject for discussion, it gives generous management latitude.
Perhaps this is why the questions persist.
Using the 'JQ is cheaper than Qantas'
without a disclosure of this type (as management have done repeatedly) is disingenuous and has been used as a cornerstone of 'labour issues' for a decade. We would argue that the accounting standards were not designed to be used like this.