Gentlemen, the issue is far wider than VA or QF and it extends back beyond the formation of VA. Like most things in Australia it arose out of the USA in the late 1970s and into the 1980s'. It was the change from 'stakeholder capitalism' to 'shareholder capitalism'. Under the former all stakeholders in a corporation were regarded as interests that had to be protected as far as it was possible. When you take into account that your workforce is a stakeholder and protecting them had the result of keeping the share price lower than it could be.
Then an insidious change occurred primarily due to the activities of certain corporate raiders who mounted hostile takeovers. Seeing corporations with a good asset sheet but depressed share price was like a shark smelling blood. They were able to buy these corporations using borrowed money, transfer the debt to the purchase, strip the assets and sell the remaining shell. This was the rise of shareholder capitalism where the only consideration was the shareholder which meant anything to keep the share price high as possible. It was under this change that you had the majority of government assets sold off - it seemed a good idea at the time.
The upshot of this change is that you have a business elite pressing the government for ever more benefits for the corporation - not the employees who can go hang if necessary. Its why you hear conservative governments around the world calling for tax breaks for companies and high income earners based on the bovine excreta reasoning that it will trickle down. It never has - it never will. Why is the economic stimulus going to pensioners and benefit recipients - because they will spend it. The government was backed into a corner because it knew the stimulus had to be effective. Give it to corporations and all they will do is buy back their shares thus artificially inflating the value of the company and putting the CEO in line for his/her bonus.
So, VA is doing nothing new. QF with its Chaimans Lounge has been doing it for decades. Every major corporation in Australia glad hands the politicians in one way or another. We allow it, its legal, its business as it is practiced today. The most egregious cases sometimes trip over the line and they get their hands smacked but until the public wake up and demand fundamental change it will continue.