Australian Airlines represents pragmatism at it's best. After years of conducting mostly futile battles with the unions, QF management were left with precious little to show, other than one of the world's finest sheltered workshops. Even the best " anti personnel" operatives came up short against the outdated and extremely restrictive work practices that epitomise QF. Along comes Australian Airlines - the completely new model for QF, but instead of beating the unions with a stick, as per past practice, management simply adopted the view that the best course of action was to let the "old" company grow out, just like a bad haircut. Anyone sitting in QF nowadays, fat, dumb and happy should be very concerned. It is only the largese of the newly pragmatic management, that prevents the clippers being taken to QF wholesale. Bald is certainly an option as opposed to waiting for the bad cut to grow out fully.