Secondly - I need a short list of stupid errors made by the board that have been very costly. 777, Kangaroo slots given to BA before olympics etc....
A bit airy-fairy, so delete if it's not appropriate.
Grounding the fleet, causing fear and chaos amongst paying customers, stranding people who bought tickets in good faith to attend events whether important or otherwise...betraying customers' faith in the product. Not for safety, not for serious reasons, but for petty point scoring in an IR punch up.
With one action, destroying positive public opinion created by decades of reliable operations and dedicated staff (and management) that Qantas will get you home.
I was travelling with a family member at the time of the grounding, fortunately by car. We both saw it on the news in a small motel in the middle of the GAFA and said 'thank God we're driving, not flying Qantas'.
It was a despicable, petty and badly orchestrated act that showed exactly what the Qantas Board thinks of their customers. Bean counters can't put a price on public opinion or reliability, but it doesn't make either factor irrelevant, whatever the Board may claim.
They treated their customers like ****, and now wonder why people dislike them. Imagine if a power company had done the same thing; 'we're shutting off the power because the EBA discussions have gotten a bit personal. Freeze your arses off, Sydney!'
(Actually Sir Joh did exactly that in Queensland in the 1980s and people are still complaining about it).
As a major transport operator they are a utility (albeit a private one) and they have a moral duty to honour their commitment to transport fare paying customers unless there is a serious safety issue. They didn't honour that commitment. IMO this has cost them a tremendous amount of credibility and was an incredibly stupid own-goal.