27/09 re free trade vs Fair trade. What is "fair" is always in the eye of the beholder.
I keep getting this mantra about Chinese coolies in rags and working on dirt floors undercutting Australian workers conditions.
The reality is that most Chinese factories are far more modern than anything Australian and they are filled with the latest high tech gear operated by very well educated Chinese. That is the source of their cost competitiveness.
Every company I have seen calling for "fair" trade is invariably badly managed with a history of under investment in technology and people.
To put that another way, we both know that if Qantas was competently managed, invested in its people instead of outsourcing and operated a better fleet (B777, B787 for example) it could command a premium in the marketplace as it once did.
To put that yet another way, back in the 1970's and early 80's there was nothing I liked better than boarding a Qantas B747 at LHR, FRA, etc. hearing a happy Australian accent from the crew and being handed a
VB without having to ask, however that level of service is now gone.
As for selling Jetstar, yes, Qantas would find the same expereince as BA sell for chickenfeed and watch the buyer make a killing. It's a very common occurence because it is axiomatic in business that a Board and senior management can only be good at running ONE business.
That is why the "Qantas Group" is such a lousy rotten unmanageable structure - the whole is less than the sum of its parts. The Board and management is constantly being forced to divide its time between Jetstar, Qantas International, Qantas Domestic, Qantas Link, Jetstar Asia, Jetstar Japan, etc., etc. Thus NONE of the businesses get the time and mature consideration each one deserves.
We learned in business economics 101 that this is why conglomerates always fail - their share price is always less than the broken up asset value of the businesses.
If the Qantas Board really believed that a Low cost carrier was needed, they should have invested in the floating of a seperate public company - with its own Board and investors, that was totally at arms length.