FAVOURS FOR FAVOURS
By
Paul Zanetti
-
August 17, 2023
4829
BOYCOTT QANTAS
QANTAS the airline most Australians loved and trusted has become a mistrusted propaganda tool for the current PM under the current airline management, at expense to travelling Aussies.
Favours for favours.
While Australians are facing eye-watering air fares, our frequent flyer PM is cutting deals with outgoing QANTAS boss to benefit his family, himself and his political causes.
Recently the Air-banese government refused Qatar Airways’ application to operate 28 new flights each week between Doha and Sydney/Melbourne.
Had the government approved Qatar’s application, air travel competition would have placed downward pressure on air fares.
The NSW and Victorian governments supported Qatar’s new flights, as did the federal opposition, travel agents and tourism and consumer bodies – but not Air-bus Air-banese.
Co-incidentally, the PM’s 23-year-old uni student son Nathan Albanese is now a card-carrying member of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, which entitles the young man to free flight upgrades and bottomless champagne.
How does a uni student get a privileged membership to the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge?
QANTAS boss, Alan Joyce has confirmed the unhealthy cosiness with the current PM, telling a probing media, “It’s a commercial arrangement that we do. I’ve been good mates with Albo for some time.”
Joe Aston says in the Australian Financial Review: “As millions of Australians know and feel acutely, airfares today stand at record highs. Indeed, they are a key input of our rampant consumer price inflation. The national carrier, Qantas, is (happily for them) unable to sustain pre-COVID international capacity until FY25 due to a lack of available aircraft. In the meantime, it’s printing super-profit margins on its international flights (and domestic flights for that matter).
It smells, and what any mug punter understands is that you cannot accept extravagant favours from someone you regulate because that is plain as dog’s balls a conflict of interest. Indeed, the only reason Albanese kept it secret is because he knew it looked bad.
Each day, Qantas sells thousands of tickets on flights it never intends to operate. Each day when they are cancelled en masse, passengers and airports have zero redress (unlike in the European Union).
The Albanese government defunded the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s airline monitoring program in June with airfares at record highs and Qantas still the most complained about company in Australia. What possible justification could there be for such a decision?
When COVID-19 hit, Joyce convinced the Morrison government not to provide a $1.3 billion loan to Virgin, so his arch rival collapsed into administration. Joyce then set about extracting $2.7 billion of COVID-19 subsidies, none of which were repayable.
And now the Albanese government has knocked back Qatar Airways’ application to launch 28 new weekly flights between Doha and Australia. We knew how dodgy that decision was when the government tried to blame cavity searches in Qatar three years ago, but then Transport Minister Catherine King put it down to decarbonisation. Now it’s the Australian government conducting indefensible searches – they’re searching for a plausible explanation, but there isn’t one. It’s not me saying this, it’s the entire travel industry.”
QANTAS has now revealed its planes are a propaganda vehicle for Air-banese’s pet political project – a referendum to insert racism into the Australian Constitution.
When you fly QANTAS, you will know you will be locked into a flying billboard adorned with the word ‘Yes’.
If this is not a matter to be referred to the new Labor Federal Anti-Corruption Commission, then what is?
You and your family who feel strongly about a divisive national airline being used to promote racism, can vote with your wallet.
Boycott QANTAS.