Within days, Wirth was dispatched to Canberra to try to mend Qantas' fractured relationship with the Government. "It was very tough," says Joyce. "She went to Canberra into what would have been an unbelievable environment, meeting with people who were unbelievably angry." As Wirth was walking through Parliament House that day, she recalls a Cabinet minister hissing at her. "It was a lonely and confronting experience."
To make matters worse, at around the same time Wirth was going through a messy divorce with an Irishman 10 years her senior, now living in New York. "I wasn't happy, the whole thing was difficult," she says, although she won't discuss the issue further.
Within days????
She should have gone on the SAME day with answers to the obvious questions. A person in her position MUST act promptly, if only show the corporate face and make the usual promises.
This is why she gets paid a large sum of money, so must act accordingly with the professionalism required.
Not up to it, I say, and too fragile for the pressure of the job.
Was the purpose of this article by Cameron Stewart to mitigate lots of negative press of late?