That is without doubt, the finest speech I have ever heard or seen in print, from a politician, in the last 50 years. Well done, Senator Xenophon, let's put the corporate weasels to the torch, and see if they can stand up to serious forensic accounting scrutiny, as regards their fudged figures.
Anyone who has ever read a company quarterly or annual report, or who has been a witness to the scamming behaviour of company directors and CEO's as they try to pull the wool over shareholders and the publics eyes on a regular basis, knows full well, that truth is treated with disdain in the corporate boardrooms of this nation... and the QANTAS boardroom is no different in that respect. Just the memory of the previous, outrageous, private equity bid, is enough to make one puke.
I have been in on enough company directors and CEO's private discussions, to know how little regard they hold for morals, ethics, and the truth... particularly if a fast buck is to be made by conveniently "modifying" corporate accountancy figures, that are presented as the equivalent of tablets of stone, to unsuspecting shareholders, would-be investors, and Joe Public.
The employees of QANTAS, the pilots, the flight engineers, and Australians in general, deserve better than the current corporate spiel and weasel-words dished up by the current management of QANTAS.
Thank God for people like Nick Xenophon. The man is a Statesman, not a politician, and on a par with King O'Malley.