That said, the bloke did face the challenge of reforming some prehistoric and in part bloody minded IR environments
Sorry Airtags, but I have to disagree. James Strong did all the hard work of transforming Qantas from a government owned/union controlled entity. At the time that Dixon took over, Strong had reduced QF's Debt/Equity ratio from 87% to circa 45% and had virtually eliminated any union problems. All that Dixon has done is slash and burn, so badly that there are simply not enough staff to do the workload - especially when there are disruptions (ie daily). I'm not expecting any miracles from Joyce but I can't see him being worse than Dixon, especially with Leigh Clifford looking over his shoulder.