It is inconceivable that the Avalon closure was not decided upon many months ago. Airlines plan maintenance years in advance. This was not a sudden decision.
I totally agree Sunfish, I believe it was part of the plan way back in early 2011.
For me, about 0.47s in on this video (below) the fearless foreign leader gave the game away with
" there is no off-shoring of jobs"
(and he said this many times after.)
From that day on I believed off-shoring was a big part of the Q board's plans, they just didn't know how they were going to do it... both Labor & The Liberals at the time did not pick up on where Q management was heading (or chose to remain silent) other than Nick X. Both major political parties allowed the plans to go unchallenged, they paid a lot of lip service but slowly as time went on Q management bit by bit slashed jobs, they haven't announced anything positive since Joyce was installed.
I've got this mate, he's of Asian descent. He's got a broader Australian accent than I have, likes a beer. Australian 'culture' is as important to him as his Chinese culture. The sad day for Australian aviation was when a non-Australian was put in charge of this outfit. He's not Australian, never will be. His culture is scabby low cost garbage.
I agree Jack, I'm afraid we Aussies have lost the "Aussie spirit" that we were all once proud of, because we have allowed the "global corporate Wallies" in to run our once Australian ran business's. I think there are many other examples of this, one that comes to mind is when Rio Tinto based itself in London and the foreign CEO at the time lost millions with dumb deals in Africa etc. We don't look after our own anymore.
Rinehart urges Rio Tinto to move to Perth
Jack, I also have many friends who are Asian decent who agree with me, some of them say stuff like Australia has lost it's way because its business leaders (a lot now foreign) are more interested in pleasing "foreign institutional investment houses" for short term personal gain, Australia comes second. We are been sold out slowly, brick by brick, my feeling anyway.
Those bozo's in Canberra on both sides of the political fence seem to think this business direction for our country is also the way forward, just look at how the the big four Banks are allowed to also flourish, again a lot of political lip service spent at times but the banks continue to squeeze job's for Aussies whilst they print money for themselves.
Probably more than ever in Australia's history "the political talent pool" we have in Canberra is at an all time low on both sides of politics. I can't think of one stand out politician who can see the wood's through the trees.
I found it odd today that AJ left the announcement for LS to make, he didn't even have the guts to do it himself, says a lot about Joyce to me as a man, he failed to front up, he was busy talking about Aer Lingus
Qantas chief Joyce 'not surprised' at interest in Aer Lingus - Independent.ie
Sadly the Avalon announcement today will not gain a lot of attention from the mainstream media, they too are slowly been culled, many journalists have also lost their jobs this year, the media industry must be feeling it as much as the Qantas staff do. It's a sad state for our nation.
I think the best summary of events was posted by Ben Sandilands today, says it all.
Qantas closure at Avalon raises harsh questions | Plane Talking
I have great respect for you all at Avalon, I feel for you guys, if I had three wishes one of them would be reserved for you guys.
Good luck to all of you...
