It's also a very unusual government at the moment with an extremely tenuous claim to the title. They're one defection, heart attack or retirement away from a by election and a possible/probable (depending on the seat) change of government. The country is not exactly pro government at the moment, but nor is it pro the opposition; the mood is basically 'you all suck' and largely has been in both state and federal politics for the last decade or so. The federal government's recent debacles must surely be eating away at what little confidence they had to start with.
The current fashion for anti corporate protests is undeniably wanky, but I believe they do illustrate the current public sentiment against companies who claim they're too poor to give cost-of-living pay rises or employ Australians rather than Thai serfs, but still seem to find the coin for 5 million dollar executive salaries (at Australian rather than Thai levels of exec renumeration) and 500 million dollar profits. When it becomes apparent that all those companies seem to be run by the same twenty people (with a million dollar kicker per company
), it all looks a bit suss, even to middle of the road obsevers who thought Joh had the right idea about student protests.
Any person or board who runs a transport company and would cheerfully inconvenience that number of customers when they had other means is a cad. That's my non academic, non executive, non renumerated with 5 million dollars opinion. Innocent people who have no horse in the Qantas vs Workers race missed funerals, weddings, business meetings, international connections and countless other important commitments because of the Qantas Board's action. That's what they think of their customers, that's what they think of the transport service they provide. So the TWU used to do it? Sure they did, and that's why a lot of people still hate them. It's really hard for Qantas to claim the moral high ground when they pulled the biggest ever snap strike without a hint of notice. Clifford wants to bag out the alleged Union Heavies? He's now shown himself to be just as much of a wildcat. In this dispute, the ALAEA and TWU gave ample notice of their intended actions, so the customers were aware and didn't find out the hard way on Fookbook mid Saturday afternoon. Spirit Of Australia my arse. They should be made to paint it out like Golden Circle had to hastily remove 'Australian Grown' from their trucks with black spray paint.
Ironically enough, Corrigan's airline is now looking like the reliable way to fly. Strange times indeed!