Board vs management
It's the board's job to ensure that management has necessary things in place to run the business, so ideally there will be range of skills on the board that can identify weaknesses and add value through scrutiny and testing.
Usually the chairman and CEO are very much on the same page and mutually supportive. The apparent absence of Clifford would make me uncomfortable if I were AJ.
As to QSA etc, the Government can't have it both ways - either get rid of it and let the company do its own thing or provide the guarantee. Unfortunately the politics suggests that this has a way to play out.
Very much like the car industry, once the levers are set by Gov (eg, tariffs for cars seeing inports) landing slots etc given to everyone and anyone, the die is cast. And it was cast a long time ago and no one in the car industry or QF was prepared to look ahead to the inevitable conclusion. Now, massive realignment.