GT - again credit for posting in your own name. Aviation journalism in Aus is a tricky business, no big paycheques and always the temptation to simply roll-over and do exactly as the big corporates wish you to do in return for a few material pleasures. Without a decent regular wage it can therefore be a hard gig. There are typically the sell-outs with near zero credibility and the (sometimes slightly loopy) independent magazine publishers who are well-intentioned but often frustrated couddabeens! Finding a realistic medium can be difficult.
As a consequence of this situation few credible journos have had the balls to tackle some big issue items.
* I understand Chris Masters (ABC 4 Corners) had a brilliant piece about the very questionable dealings of an airline CEO in the early 1990's but this was never put to air as the lawyers stymied it.
* There is a fantastic story still waiting to be told about the demise of Compass Mk 1 and a pre-planned and rehearsed strategy (Operation Sewn-Up) created and implemented by a certain (still extant) aviation strategy organisation, using taxpayers money to assist Mr Abeles of Ansett. Ever wonder how so many mothballed 727's were available immediately with full CofA's to 'rescue' pax stranded by the collapse of Compass?
* More recently there is still one major question hanging over the APA bid for Qantas. Within days of the bid failing the CEO of Qantas published profound, extensive and very far-reaching plans for the future of the airline.
a) This information was published immediately after the bid failed and thus could only have had a few hours to have been formulated. Only an incompetent managerial structure could run an airline in such a knee-jerk reactionary fashion. Why hasn't this been highlighted? Such irresponsible corporate governance shouldn't go unpunished.
b) More realistically (given the complexity of the issues), perhaps the plan was already in place before the bid failed? If so, this is even more sinister. If this is the case, shareholders were never made aware of these plans and such information would have been absolutely fundamental to their decision as to whether to support the bid or not. Concealing such manifestly important information from shareholders must surely breach the Corporations Act (or at least morally reprehensible given the importance of QF to the Australian public)?
Whilst we like to deride other countries (like the UAE and the support Emirates receives), the industry in Australia is not as clean as we like to think.
It's about time a decent, articulate, independent and legally savvy journalist tackled some of these issues. The inevitable pressure that would then be applied to that journalist by the organisations reviewed would if well documented, also add to the gravitas of the story.
However given the realities of the issues in first paragraph I doubt such true investigative journalism will be seen any time soon.