Power of the Chairman’s Club

[dragon man]

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1504/5510be42_fa32_4f2d_8dbe_25ae3556398c_0b5a0d702b8a30078d39bc8 175a06ddb117a89d5.png
Says it all for me.

[blubak]

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/2000x1504/5510be42_fa32_4f2d_8dbe_25ae3556398c_0b5a0d702b8a30078d39bc8 175a06ddb117a89d5.png
Says it all for me.
Loss of aussie jobs is BS,they cant get people to fill the vacancies they have & isnt it going to promote more tourism within aus if theres more capacity coming in from overseas.

[Ladloy]

But Finnair is okay

[aussieflyboy]

Loss of aussie jobs is BS,they cant get people to fill the vacancies they have & isnt it going to promote more tourism within aus if theres more capacity coming in from overseas.

That’s because they’re not paying enough to be competitive. There are many Pilot hoping to see an article in The Australian saying Qantas has been prevented by the Australian Government from hiring overseas Pilots to fly their new domestic aircraft very soon.

[kingRB]

But Finnair is okay


also in the same breath, "it's not anti competitive when we seek to buy out QQ and monopolise charter competition in Australia"

[PoppaJo]

Qatar are not just flooding the market for the sake of it, people are actually flying them due to top notch service and hard product, they have the demand. If you have flown Q Suites recently you will understand. They have nailed many parts of the experience, Qantas Long Haul is an embarrassment.

I don’t think Qatar was asking for much, when factoring in Etihad who had 9 flights a day into Australia at one moment in time. Today that sits at 2.

[dragon man]

Australian jobs is just a joke. They don’t like competition , without a near domestic monopoly there would be no Qantas today. Total and upper hypocrisy but you would expect nothing better from Joyce and co.

[Slippery_Pete]

Surely even the Australian federal government aren’t stupid enough to approve foreign pilots. Public and political sentiment for QF is at an all time low.
You should have faith that the government will
recognise it as an attempt to screw industrial conditions down, and that there’s plenty of Aussie pilots to fly Aussie jets. QF just have to pay what they’re worth, rather than this industrial divide and conquer using subsidiaries - and then playing victim and asking for foreign pilots.

[romeocharlie]

Unpopular opinion, but I think this is a great result.

The last thing we need are these grubs flying here more. Need I remind you all of the “extra service” provided to women in Doha 2020? Nothing has changed including their attitude. Hate Qantas all you like, but we don’t need these billy goats making more money off Australians.


https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/21/australian-women-sue-qatar-airways-over-forced-examinations-at-doha-airport

[C441]

They have nailed many parts of the experience,
Especially the invasive search of women in the terminal part. In that they have a completely unique product amongst major airlines operating to Australia.

And before you say Qatar Airways didn't order the searches….They are an arm of the Qatari government that has an ongoing record of poor treatment of many, women among them. Imagine if that had happened in an Australian airport to passengers dragged - without explanation - off a Qantas flight. I'm not sure it would have been quite as conveniently swept under the carpet because they offer wonderful service and great Q-suites.

[rob_ginger]

Not an unpopular opinion with me (SLF) - I have in the past flown with Emirates and Etihad in business class - great service, low price, and usually an A380. But after Doha 2020 I've vowed never again on a ME airline. Flew Thai Business last month to France, and it was great. I'll pay extra to avoid going in to the ME.
Just imagine - you stumble and accidentally tread on the foot of the Emir's cousin, breaking his toe. He's already pissed off because his camel came last in yesterday's camel racing, so it's off to prison you go. Sure, the airline will get you out again because of the bad publicity, but do you want to spend a night in a jail in the ME? No such thing as "rule of law" and everyone's equal.
Mind you, we really could do with a bit more competition - Thai Business had 22 rows in a 777, and it was choccers. Qantas jobs for Australian pilots. Yeah, right. Fat profits for executive's pay, and stuff the rest. And can anyone tell me the last time Qantas paid some company tax?

[Chronic Snoozer]

One can only hope the QANTAS rationale masks the real reason the government rejected Qatar’s overtures, namely taking a moral stand over the repugnant episode in Doha. I see Flight Centre’s CEO has mocked this argument proving once again that if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. A more positive response from “Skroo” would have been to encourage QANTAS to fill the demand for travel to Australia by servicing the market properly. He is apparently wilfully blind to the fact that Qatar Airways is a state-run airline. Know your product.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/flight-centre-boss-warns-ridiculous-qatar-airways-decision-will-keep-fares-high-20230720-p5dpvz.html

[dragon man]

MPs loll in comfort as Qantas logs record profits and planes fly like wounded ’roosCanberra's decision-makers may get to enjoy five-star luxury in chairman's lounges but the hoi polloi get far less salubrious treatment.

MICHAEL SAINSBURY (https://www.crikey.com.au/author/michael-sainsbury/)

JUL 31, 2023

5 (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/07/31/qantas-record-profits-customers-unhappy-planes-delayed/#comments)

Share
https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/4dvp2yvm6Gj7OGLOyXGpIoZ_3uGNAFiNMp0MTojLNnorYLnvgb0gV9KH3CrG uC8c2b6GUjeTQ1EgD0RONcsCH_l0-qMeERqvcOtmBQwzbSvbM9QwaR47DnA_1E2_Pw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Qantas-plane.jpg?w=740A QANTAS PLANE AT ITS MELBOURNE ENGINEERING DEPOT (IMAGE: AAP/JOEL CARRETT)Qantas is relishing a financial sweet spot, with profits booming and its share price skyrocketing off the back of high prices, 15 years of under-investment (https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/the-12b-question-for-new-qantas-boss-vanessa-hudson-20230502-p5d520) in its fleet, engineering staff and facilities, plus screwing staff wages (https://www.miragenews.com/qantas-cabin-crew-employed-by-14-companies-1020324/) down and buying back shares.

At its annual results next month, Qantas is expected to deliver a profit of $2.425 billion-$2.475 billion according to May guidance (https://www.fool.com.au/2023/05/23/qantas-share-price-drops-as-airline-eyes-record-profit/#:~:text=Key%20points&text=The%20Qantas%20Airways%20Limited%20(ASX,billion%20for%2 0financial%20year%202023.).

But customers remain deeply unhappy. The airline cancels flights (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12248693/Jetstar-Qantas-flights-cancelled-delayed-amid-major-problem.html)with monotonous regularity across its three main Australian arms — Qantas proper, Jetstar and Qantas Link, which services smaller regional airports. Its phone lines are permanently clogged, economy-class food is loaded with sugar, fat and/or is inedible, and its club and business lounges look like unkempt late-night dive bars — tatty, dirty and understaffed. Yet prices remain stubbornly high (https://www.themandarin.com.au/222137-accc-blames-qantas-and-virgin-australia-duopoly-for-high-flight-prices-and-poor-service/) due to, according to the competition regulator says, a lack of competition.
https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/kNeUGNkRWFkuyl2S2p5hk3ouULybRmdcgesgQZzp1YiCPw8zJzgpyVW11hoQ ajIEIVBW4TOywktjaQVQhKHmsjUQGwjAseflSpcsUU0t2Bf_J7dReq8tBAYZ OEOTObrQLzh1BPJ6F_4CDSAdpO0rnQNj=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Alan-Joyce_1480x800.jpg?w=224&h=120&crop=1 (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/11/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-publicly-owned-again/)Now it’s de-Joyced, Qantas should be returned to the people (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/11/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-publicly-owned-again/)Read More (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/11/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-publicly-owned-again/)Those expecting some relief from the Albanese government in the shape of more competition in the airline sector (that it claims it wants) and/or the delivery of proper customer guarantees and compensation that consumer groups are seeking (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-21/consumer-advocates-say-flight-delays-should-be-compensated/101455328) (such as those long available in the EU and now on their way in the US thanks to a rare bipartisan bill (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/us/politics/faa-air-travel-planes-congress.html) passed by Congress last week) have been bitterly disappointed.

Instead, it appears to be doing its best to protect Qantas’ dominant market position, in thrall to their lobbying.

In a bewildering move, in the past week Canberra has rejected Qatar Airways’ bid to add an extra 21 flights into Australia, and a bid by well-regarded Turkish Airlines to begin its first flights (https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/130060-no-certainty-on-turkish-airlines-flights-to-australia) to Australia is also under a cloud. Transport Minister Catherine King, who has all but ignored the sector since taking up the role after last year’s election, has struggled to explain (https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/minister-denies-searches-of-australian-women-in-doha-behind-move-to-block-qatar-airways-20230723-p5dqmr.html) the Qatar decision, claiming it was unrelated to a nasty incident that saw Australian women put through demeaning body checks in 2020.

Increasingly, observers are concerned that the airline is leveraging its ultimate lobbying ace in the pack — its exclusive Chairman’s Lounge (https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/qantas-chairmans-lounge-inside-the-inviteonly-club-that-rejected-jacqui-lambie-20210530-h1w61m.html) of which almost every federal politician is a member. Members have access to a special phone line which, unlike regular Qantas call centre lines, gets answered in a thrice. They are offered free upgrades, access to frequent-flyer seats that even Qantas’ most loyal platinum and lifetime gold members cannot get, and are showered with five-star treatment in plush lounges that sit behind secret black doors at Australia’s major airports. It’s not just politicians; some senior regulators and judges who may adjudicate on the company are also members.

Qantas remains the senior player in an effective oligopoly with Virgin Airlines — together they control 95% of the domestic market, with Qantas taking 66% of the overall market. With partner Emirates in a cartel-like arrangement, Qantas also holds 53% of the Australia-Europe market, dominates regional holiday routes such as Bali and Phuket, and holds about 40%-50% of the lucrative Australia-US market.

Its domestic earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), or profit margin, increased from 12% in 2016-17 to 18% for 2021-2022 — a 50% increase in six years. Typical profit margins for domestic aviation operators in Australia were between 8% and 10% (https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Economics/Economicdynamism).
https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/oMBiQvW9kOCOLa3aVxTsx5Jp5yhfdTzEra51JP5KqWRBBHS8Cxl7r4ed6SSG NlmQ_X4K6tFBhQSOD85JU8ppaPAYwatEdkXTIR0EaVul-KBMUcC57CNcNP3GoSwFYiuUN6u78dOnmKFbhjwCP_8nsUJ3FmD8HogzXU2Cb A=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Alan-Joyce-and-Vanessa-Hudson.jpg?w=224&h=120&crop=1 (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/03/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-departure/)‘Delighted’: Qantas engineers and pilots respond to Alan Joyce’s departure (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/03/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-departure/)Read More (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/03/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-departure/)And with the average Qantas fleet age now 15 years (https://simpleflying.com/qantas-backlash-ageing-aircraft/), its understaffed maintenance division is struggling, especially with the domestic workhorse 737s.

“Pretty much everything is a mess with the 737s,” one engineer told Crikey. Aircraft are carrying “massive hold items” components or systems that don’t work but the aircraft can continue to fly under the manufacturer’s guidance. The “cabins are in poor shape. I’d say the company wants to run these aircraft without big investments until the [new] A320s come in. There are just no parts or manpower.”

One pilot described this as “like flying wounded kangaroos, with some not even allowed to fly over water at times”.

Pilots who spoke to Crikey agreed. “It takes at least 15 minutes to even get someone to look at a last-minute fault — and they are pulled off another job. This is behind a lot of the delays. It never used to be like this,” one pilot with decades of experience said.

Meanwhile, at Qantas’ main engineering base in Australia, staff are working in what one engineer described as “Third World” conditions.

“We are still flat-out every day in Sydney and as you see in the media we still have plenty of delays,” another engineer said. “We are sending A380s to Singapore for maintenance now as the Qantas maintenance facility at Los Angeles is such a basket case they are unable to complete the maintenance they were set up to do.”

The Sydney base was treated with disdain, “Yet we are the facility where the most maintenance is achieved. Our facilities are still Third World and no money will be spent upgrading them until Qantas knows what Sydney Airport Corp wants to do with the terminals. We have been promised new hangars for 20 years yet no one wants to invest in world-class infrastructure.”

It is also still many years until its fleet renewal will get into full swing, with dozens of aircraft — including replacements for its A330s — in a global environment where waitlists on Boeing and Airbus planes are only getting longer. Crikey has learnt that outgoing CEO Alan Joyce will belatedly announce the purchase of 12 787s and 12 350s — both long-range twin-aisle aircraft — at the results briefing next month. When they will be delivered is another matter.
https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/hh72KE7fD3TN3tutgOnRRXG8EnR7p9_YT5-JhUHbS23uWfgAxCOcC1bfipV4_6X7HLKA93gUfWnSoYGe4iA3KH961oAY-XcvGiUUxGYq5KLtykStUek0FNx0epaf5qjMWW8xMpHWe1wya3eFAlmV7YLF0 ogdhyGgrY0Ch5NY0lnV=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20220905001698639283-original-copy.jpg?w=224&h=120&crop=1 (https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/09/28/qantas-jetstar-stephanie-tully-plane-shortage/)Flying blind: Qantas and Jetstar limp from one doomed survival plan to another (https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/09/28/qantas-jetstar-stephanie-tully-plane-shortage/)Read More (https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/09/28/qantas-jetstar-stephanie-tully-plane-shortage/)As part of its aggressive lobbying efforts, Qantas bleats about saving Australian jobs yet does its best to send jobs to foreign workers offshore. It has a “wet lease” deal with Finnair (https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2023/05/20/finnair-to-lease-two-a330s-with-new-business-class-seats-to-qantas/#:~:text=The%20deal%20will%20see%20an,the%20second%20in%20ea rly%202024.) which provides crew on leased planes, its Emirates alliance, crews based in Singapore, the UK, Thailand — known in the region as one of the industry’s worst paid — and New Zealand. It has call centres in South Africa, Ireland and the Philippines and is lobbying for 300 overseas residents to be able to pilot its planes for the first time. It is already recruiting in South Africa, sources said.

Australian pilots, especially those newly certified, are heading offshore where wages are substantially higher. While top Qantas pilots can earn as much as $400,000, US freight carriers are offering up to US$700,000. Saudi Arabia’s nascent Riyadh Air (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/20/riyadh-air-new-saudi-airline-seeks-to-benefit-from-travel-boom), announced only in March with plans of becoming the Middle East’s largest airline, is offering US$500,000 tax-free, pilots familiar with global pay rates said.

As with an increasing number of issues, the Albanese government, which promised so much in its election campaign, is looking all too much like its predecessor in its reluctance to make improvements in the airline sector.

God forbid that Qantas was forced to cut its Chairman’s Lounges in the face of sturdy competition and our politicians — looking at you too, teals (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/teals-join-party-hacks-in-the-chairman-s-lounge-20230501-p5d4o9) — and senior public servants were forced to mix with the hoi polloi, take their turn in the queue and perhaps hear why Australians are angry.

[Global Aviator]

Even the United premium cabin services beats QF, not only that look at the options across the pacific, so many choices.

As for the ME 3, yes there was a disgusting incident but likewise there are some horrifically racial slurs on here, really not needed.

QF need to step up if they want to compete on the international scene.

SQ via Singapore to anywhere with brilliant service, yes expensive.

Turkish will be a brilliant option if they do come in, wonder if they still have the sky chef onboard?

Completion, wait until the Chinese carriers start to really ramp up again.

Aussies do love QF, Scotty from marketing has done a brilliant job, but given choice many Aussies will prefer others, but hey that’s just outbound, inbound business and tourism demands so much more.

As for pilots on domestic sector's, your’re already seeing it with the likes of Air North and the Sth African push, is it the 457? Be careful what you push for as so many Aussies get the USA break on the E3, the difference is the unions are strong and wages are still on the up. Meanwhile in Aus nekminnit…………

[PoppaJo]

So 24 aircraft to replace 26 A330s. Sounds about right, typical QF.

Either way, it will be ‘revolutionary’, ‘market leading’, ‘game changing’. It’s bloody embarrassing.

[Jack D. Ripper]

So 24 aircraft to replace 26 A330s. Sounds about right, typical QF.

Either way, it will be ‘revolutionary’, ‘market leading’, ‘game changing’. It’s bloody embarrassing.

Don’t need as many wide bodies when you have A321’s and A220’s doing international.

Meanwhile AIPA fiddles…….

[Transition Layer]

So 24 aircraft to replace 26 A330s. Sounds about right, typical QF.

Either way, it will be ‘revolutionary’, ‘market leading’, ‘game changing’. It’s bloody embarrassing.
You forgot some throwaway line about increased utilisation. Throw in another wet lease and we are set for some rapid growth!

[unobtanium]

Don’t need as many wide bodies when you have A321’s and A220’s doing international.

Meanwhile AIPA fiddles…….

and e190's. Next they will fly q400s to bali because right size'd aircraft for the route's

[dragon man]

Misogyny, hoarding, massive complaints — Joyce leaves a shocking mess behindQantas, our most complained-about company, continues to enjoy the favour of the government — even as its misbehaviour becomes clearer.

BERNARD KEANE (https://www.crikey.com.au/author/bernard-keane/)

AUG 02, 2023

50 (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/08/02/qantas-alan-joyce-misogyny-hoarding-massive-complaints/#comments)

Give this article
https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/rHkubR042tPGWA_VU4Tenc_xN0mWo05wI56p8xLq-AaIQMdtls8BzNQgPAMKbZFHhShEYu90H6DfbBMjTkz2_XGGJN3XnMkgmDqAN guvqwiUYSXkexNeS4kc-9s=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Alan-Joyce.png?w=740ALAN JOYCE (IMAGE: AAP/JOEL CARRETT)Outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce may have been beloved of financial markets and the right-wing media, but what might be called “the Joyce model” — underinvestment, attacks on workers, gorging on taxpayer handouts, trying to undermine competitors, offering appalling service and blaming customers when they complain — is looking more and more rotten as his long-delayed (how appropriate!) departure in November nears.

Earlier this year Sydney Airport exposed one of Joyce’s anti-competitive tricks, pointing out (https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/which-airlines-cancel-the-most-on-syd-mel-and-why-20230417-p5d127) that Qantas sought slots for significantly more than its 2019 capacity, but then cancelled vast numbers of flights, leaving competitors without slots. (Virgin also cancelled flights, but had sought only 95% of its 2019 capacity.)
https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/kNeUGNkRWFkuyl2S2p5hk3ouULybRmdcgesgQZzp1YiCPw8zJzgpyVW11hoQ ajIEIVBW4TOywktjaQVQhKHmsjUQGwjAseflSpcsUU0t2Bf_J7dReq8tBAYZ OEOTObrQLzh1BPJ6F_4CDSAdpO0rnQNj=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Alan-Joyce_1480x800.jpg?w=224&h=120&crop=1 (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/11/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-publicly-owned-again/)Now it’s de-Joyced, Qantas should be returned to the people (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/11/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-publicly-owned-again/)Read More (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/05/11/qantas-alan-joyce-ceo-publicly-owned-again/)After former Transport Workers’ Union head and now Senator Tony Sheldon had a crack at Qantas, the airline responded on Monday (https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-says-sydney-airport-is-demonising-it-in-landing-rights-stoush-20230730-p5dsdl) by saying it was all the fault of Sydney’s weather — which at least makes a change from blaming travellers.

The Australian Financial Review — which was banned from Qantas lounges (https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-financial-review-boycott-cuts-copies-from-lounges-in-flight-wi-fi-20230504-p5d5qf.html) because Joyce didn’t like Joe Aston regularly pointing out his flaws — reported today (https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-complaints-in-a-league-of-their-own-unpublished-data-shows-20230727-p5drrg) that the airline industry’s complaints “advocate” has been sitting on a report showing a mammoth surge in airline customer complaints in 2022. Unsurprisingly, Qantas dominated the complaints. The airline’s response — things are all better now, don’t worry about what happened in 2022.

But Qantas is the most complained-about company in the country, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported earlier this year (https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-complaints-rise-by-70-per-cent-as-accc-calls-on-carriers-to-reduce-fares-20230308-p5cqdg.html). It was using its duopoly with Virgin to gouge customers, the ACCC said in June (https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/acccs-scathing-send-off-to-airlines-in-final-quarterly-report/news-story/20d116da28f95b9b7e35dfb65d189f5e).

Just to make it a real red-letter day for Qantas, the Herald Sun this morning revealed a misogynist online group (https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/qantas-pilots-target-female-colleagues-new-ceo-vanessa-hudson-in-vile-leaked-discussions/news-story/04cb1003af841734fbedfd7d6c2d143d) operated by male Qantas pilots — allegedly as part of a thriving sexist culture within the airline, partly directed at incoming CEO Vanessa Hudson.

Whether the Herald Sun will now be banned from Qantas lounges remains to be seen. The airline no longer inflicts far-right Sky News on lounge members, but forces passengers using wi-fi to see News Corp content. That means exposing passengers to racist garbage and lies about the Voice to Parliament as part of a “complimentary service”, despite the airline’s standard corporate puffery about respect and acknowledgement of Indigenous Australians.

Aston’s criticism of Joyce apparently required special intervention, but racism and misinformation are provided as a standard feature.

As Michael Sainsbury pointed out (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/07/31/qantas-record-profits-customers-unhappy-planes-delayed/) in Crikey on Monday, Australians angered at the systematic trashing of Qantas as a reliable quality airline and its incessant attacks on its own workforce might be wondering why the Albanese government is bending over backwards to protect Qantas from competition by refusing applications from Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines to add international capacity.

Labor has also allowed the ACCC’s airline monitoring brief to lapse, meaning there is no regular oversight of the kind that identified Qantas’s price-gouging.

And the government — despite Sheldon’s fulminations — is also resisting doing anything about the lack of a genuinely independent complaints body for airlines. The ACCC called for an industry ombudsman (https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/airlines-should-be-fined-for-cancelling-flights-says-accc-20230601-p5dd1p) in June (as well as fines for cancelling flights) but the government is delaying any consideration of an independent complaints body until 2024.

It continues a pattern whereby governments of both stripes seem to regularly elevate Qantas’ interests above the public interest. With government protection like that, it’s unsurprising that Qantas believes it can do whatever it likes — and maybe that won’t change once Joyce has left the departure lounge

[PoppaJo]

Another astute piece from Mr Aston, un-paywalled for tomorrows paper.

Alan Joyce puts Albo’s son in Qantas Chairman’s Lounge


Aug 2, 2023 – 8.15pm

Joe Aston, Australian Financial Review

It’s easy to forget that Anthony Albanese has been in Canberra for a very long time. Entitlement to largesse is a lifelong practice
The recent decision by the Albanese government to block Qatar Airways from launching 28 new flights per week between Doha and Australia has caused quiet amazement in the corridors of Parliament House.

Transport Minister Catherine King’s clarification last week (https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/minister-denies-searches-of-australian-women-in-doha-behind-move-to-block-qatar-airways-20230723-p5dqmr.html) elevated the matter to high farce. She insisted the decision was not related to a human rights incident at Doha Airport in 2020 and instead linked it to her desire “to decarbonise the transport sector”. That was such an arrant non sequitur that the only rational response was laughter.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.282%2C$multiply_3%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_144 %2C$y_4/t_crop_custom/c_scale%2Cw_620%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto/50a05a24b2c15bdeea13db4b4e52ffea08b2b5d3Anthony Albanese and his son Nathan. Alex Ellinghausen

The dazzling irony is that King offered this implausible explanation for yet another government measure fortifying Qantas’ market power as she stood in London touring Britain’s high-speed rail lines – a mode of travel Qantas’ lobbying machine has successfully obstructed in Australia for at least the past 30 years.

It is genuinely difficult to fathom the hold Qantas seems to have over this government (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/what-wouldn-t-anthony-albanese-do-for-qantas-20230723-p5dqlt). Air fares are at record highs (and a key factor in high inflation) while customer service levels are recovering from record lows.

In the year to June 30, 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Competition received more complaints about Qantas than any other company – the airline blamed COVID-19 disruption but claimed “things have improved and we are getting Qantas back to its best”.Breaking news: the ACCC told this column on Wednesday that Qantas remained the most complained about company in Australia in the year to June 30, 2023!
And yet King forced the ACCC to discontinue its airline monitoring program in June by refusing to extend its funding. It’s scandalous, but it’s only in keeping with the long tradition of every Australian government indulging Qantas to an immoderate extent. If there’s any evidence to the contrary, please show it to me.

To be understood, all of this must be viewed through the lens of Anthony Albanese’s incredibly tight relationship with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, a bond that jars so badly with Albo’s misty-eyed working-class origin story.

What Australian company has in recent years done more to bleed mug punters and even its own workers? Qantas illegally sacked 1700 baggage handlers in November 2020 (all while sucking back $2.7 billion of non-recourse government COVID-19 subsidies). An appeal was heard in May by the High Court, where every presiding justice is a member of the Chairman’s Lounge.Tinpot republicsSpeaking of the Chairman’s Lounge, which comfortably generates the highest return on invested capital in the entire Qantas Group (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-has-canberra-all-figured-out-20230226-p5cnp0), you would not believe who has earned himself access to the pleasures hidden behind its discreet entrance. None other than the prime minister’s 23-year-old son, Nathan Albanese. It’s the stuff tinpot African republics are made of.

Everyone knows Joyce personally curates the Chairman’s Lounge membership list. Did Qantas offer this extravagant benefit to Albanese or did Albanese request it for his son? When asked this week, neither the airline nor the Prime Minister’s Office would explain. But did any of them really think a university student sweeping into the Chairman’s Lounge like a lord wouldn’t stand out like dog’s balls?

Albanese has never disclosed Nathan’s membership in his statement of registrable interests with the parliament. The PM might argue it’s not required if his son is not technically a dependent (although the Labor leader did say in 2022 that “We’re close, we live together”).

Irrespective of the sophistry relied upon, his son has received this benefit only because of his father’s position. It should be declared, especially by the guy who was elected on an integrity platform. Ask yourself: would Ben Chifley have done this?

Otherwise, where does it end? Should young Nathan get an unlimited balance in his SportsBet account or perhaps a discount from Meriton on his first apartment, all beyond our line of sight?

I have sympathy for Nathan. This is not even about him. This is about the prime minister’s inability to resist a secret freebie, a sly gratuity of public office, or to grasp how compromised he looks.

Albanese was regulating Qantas as transport minister for six years in the Rudd and Gillard governments. What other favours might Qantas have done him (or those close to him) that he felt were unnecessary to declare?
It’s easy to forget Albo has been in Canberra for a very long time. Entitlement to largesse is a lifelong practice. He will barely have opened his own wallet in 30 years. Yet, he’s no worse than the next institutionalised MP, just one inhabitant of a swamp full of chancers.

Remember, it always starts small. It’s the little favours. Please, let the valet take your car. Only the best table in the house. Don’t worry, I know a guy. We’ll make your problem disappear. Before you know it, it’s become normal for your family to be ushered through airports like royalty.

This is what ultimately comes from public officials accepting gifts from Qantas, an industrial-scale, multi-generational influence peddler. They are better than the mafia.

This is how they do it, and why Qantas gets whatever it wants from government, whenever it wants it. It’s why no matter how poorly the company treats Australian voters, the officials that voters depend upon to keep the company accountable can be depended upon to look the other way.

[Seabreeze]

Famous Quote
"Power tends to Corrupt"

[MickG0105]

Air fares are at record highs (and a key factor in high inflation)
This bloke really needs to find someone at The Fin who can explain how inflation is calculated.

Airfares are not a key factor in high inflation. New dwelling purchases, Rents, Medical and hospital services, Other financial services, Restaurant meals, Automotive fuel, Motor vehicles, Takeaway and fast foods, and Tobacco are key factors in inflation. They are all larger contributors to inflation than everything that is bundled up into the ABS expenditure sub-group called Domestic holiday travel. The Domestic holiday travel sub-group is made up of airfares, rail fares, bus fares, rental car hire, petrol used for self-drive travel, and holiday accommodation (hotel/motel, flat/house rental, and caravan hire/park fees).

Those first nine sub-groups (New dwelling purchases to Tobacco) in aggregate make up just shy of 40 percent of the CPI. Domestic holiday travel represents 2.43 percent, and domestic airfares make up only a proportion of that.

Moving down the pecking order in terms of contribution towards the CPI we have Maintenance and repair of dwelling, Electricity, Beer, Telecommunications, Wine, Secondary education, and Maintenance and repair of vehicle (in aggregate nearly 15 percent) before we get to the International holiday travel sub-group at 1.85 percent. And again, that sub-group is made up of a number of expenditure classes; airfares, "other" fares (mainly cruise line fares) and accommodation.

It is just rank nonsense to say that airfares are a key factor in high inflation.

And someone needs to acquaint him with the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) domestic airfare index data series. By no objective measure are domestic airfares at record highs.

[dragon man]

This bloke really needs to find someone at The Fin who can explain how inflation is calculated.

Airfares are not a key factor in high inflation. New dwelling purchases, Rents, Medical and hospital services, Other financial services, Restaurant meals, Automotive fuel, Motor vehicles, Takeaway and fast foods, and Tobacco are key factors in inflation. They are all larger contributors to inflation than everything that is bundled up into the ABS expenditure sub-group called Domestic holiday travel. The Domestic holiday travel sub-group is made up of airfares, rail fares, bus fares, rental car hire, petrol used for self-drive travel, and holiday accommodation (hotel/motel, flat/house rental, and caravan hire/park fees).

Those first nine sub-groups (New dwelling purchases to Tobacco) in aggregate make up just shy of 40 percent of the CPI. Domestic holiday travel represents 2.43 percent, and domestic airfares make up only a proportion of that.

Moving down the pecking order in terms of contribution towards the CPI we have Maintenance and repair of dwelling, Electricity, Beer, Telecommunications, Wine, Secondary education, and Maintenance and repair of vehicle (in aggregate nearly 15 percent) before we get to the International holiday travel sub-group at 1.85 percent. And again, that sub-group is made up of a number of expenditure classes; airfares, "other" fares (mainly cruise line fares) and accommodation.

It is just rank nonsense to say that airfares are a key factor in high inflation.

And someone needs to acquaint him with the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) domestic airfare index data series. By no objective measure are domestic airfares at record highs.

Personally I would refer to the above as spin, that is to detract from the main point of the article and that is the benefit bestowed upon the PMs son. A bit like the way Qantas announce some new aircraft or green fuel initiative when ever there is a report out about them ripping off the their mug customers once again. It’s all about distracting the reader from the main point of the story.

[MickG0105]

Personally I would refer to the above as spin, that is to detract from the main point of the article and that is the benefit bestowed upon the PMs son. A bit like the way Qantas announce some new aircraft or green fuel initiative when ever there is a report out about them ripping off the their mug customers once again. It’s all about distracting the reader from the main point of the story.
It's not "spin", it's facts. If Joe wants to avoid the nonsense that he sprinkles his articles with detracting from the overall impact of the article, here's an idea - drop the nonsense.

Frankly, if you are that easily distracted from the main point of a story, well

https://youtu.be/WDIo5kCuBSE

[Chris2303]

Famous Quote
"Power tends to Corrupt"
You forgot the other sentence

"Absolutely power corrupts absolutely"

[gordonfvckingramsay]

Another astute piece from Mr Aston, un-paywalled for tomorrows paper.

Seconded!! The odd economic slip up aside, this article nicely paints a picture of how “certain companies” continue to operate in Australia despite their glaring failure to abide by the laws that (should) keep them in line. Mates of mates of mates bury investigations or stop short of enforcing penalties when (industrial perhaps?) laws are broken etc…it’s rotten to the core.

[dragon man]

Note how he says all the High Court judges are members so why didn’t they recuse themselves?

[Chronic Snoozer]

It's not "spin", it's facts. If Joe wants to avoid the nonsense that he sprinkles his articles with detracting from the overall impact of the article, here's an idea - drop the nonsense.

Frankly, if you are that easily distracted from the main point of a story, well

https://youtu.be/WDIo5kCuBSE

That looks like a CEO recruiting video.

[MickG0105]

That looks like a CEO recruiting video.
It could pass for Crisis Management 101 or a Simple Guide to Australian Politics, perhaps both.

[MickG0105]

Note how he says all the High Court judges are members so why didn’t they recuse themselves?
I think that you will find that all 50 or so Federal Court judges are also CL members. That didn't stop four of them making findings against Qantas in the same case.

[dragon man]

I think that you will find that all 50 or so Federal Court judges are also CL members. That didn't stop four of them making findings against Qantas in the same case.


Do you know they are as a fact? Secondly it can be appealed from the Federal Court it can’t from the HC. My own belief is no employee on the public purse , politicians, public servants etc should be allowed membership.

[Pinky the pilot]

My own belief is no employee on the public purse , politicians, public servants etc should be allowed membership.

Seconded. But to add; And all Family members.

[MickG0105]

Do you know they are as a fact? Secondly it can be appealed from the Federal Court it can’t from the HC. My own belief is no employee on the public purse , politicians, public servants etc should be allowed membership.
Does anyone apart from the Chairman, the CEO and some other Qantas employees know for a fact what the membership list is for the Chairman's Lounge?

[dragon man]

Does anyone apart from the Chairman, the CEO and some other Qantas employees know for a fact what the membership list is for the Chairman's Lounge?


Not the full list no, however politicians have to declare it. How can the head of CASA be a member and before you ask she admitted it in a Senate estimates hearing.

[Bug]

I think that you will find that all 50 or so Federal Court judges are also CL members. That didn't stop four of them making findings against Qantas in the same case.

The membership of CL should be declared.
A potential conflict of interest was not disclosed if it was not declared.

[Chronic Snoozer]

It could pass for Crisis Management 101 or a Simple Guide to Australian Politics, perhaps both.

It's how the IR team view the Unions.

I don't think CL membership for anyone in government would pass the pub test in a million years.

[SOPS]

Joyce has just granted membership to the PM’s son.

[Clare Prop]

Especially the invasive search of women in the terminal part. In that they have a completely unique product amongst major airlines operating to Australia.

And before you say Qatar Airways didn't order the searches….They are an arm of the Qatari government that has an ongoing record of poor treatment of many, women among them. Imagine if that had happened in an Australian airport to passengers dragged - without explanation - off a Qantas flight. I'm not sure it would have been quite as conveniently swept under the carpet because they offer wonderful service and great Q-suites.

Not just Qatar, but in Dubai my metal hip beeped going through the arch, as it always does; I was marched into a booth where I was subjected to a strip search by a person in the full black Saudi type garb, while a man with a machine gun watched and sniggered. Needless to say Emirates lost a good customer that day and I will never, ever travel through the Middle East again. Qantas direct to London every time now.

[Captain Dart]

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/08/another-genius-column-from-the-fin-reviews-joe-aston-on-qantas-corrupting-therapeutic-albanese.html

[dragon man]

Qantas boss hits out over accusation of government influencehttps://archive.md/lyL3f/50600661a73bb4caa08a420a72f7a25ceb5f8df8.webpBy Amelia McGuire (https://archive.md/o/lyL3f/https://www.smh.com.au/by/amelia-mcguire-p4yvpi)August 3, 2023 — 7.45pm
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Share
Normal text sizeALarger text sizeAVery large text sizeAOutgoing Qantas boss Alan Joyce has rejected allegations the federal government is in his pocket, after an application from Qatar Airways to add flights to Australia was rejected without explanation.
Qantas rival Virgin Australia has a close partnership with Qatar Airways and would have benefited from additional flights through its code-share relationship with the airline.
Joyce said he had often opposed the Albanese government, including whether to introduce multi-employer bargaining, and the outcome had not gone in the airline’s favour. https://archive.md/lyL3f/2aa01714b4e2ca04dd7eeed5ef63d5a1f665e483.webp Outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.CREDIT: RHETT WYMAN “The chief executive of Qantas or Virgin will always have a relationship with the government,” Joyce said on Thursday. “There are a lot of things I disagree with the government on, as well as lots we do agree on. That’s the way it works. It is just nonsense that we have unbelievable influence and I don’t know how that mindset has developed.
“If the government was doing the bidding of Qantas it wouldn’t have gone with multi-employer bargaining which is a much bigger issue,” Joyce said. “The prime minister had a go at me when we grounded the airline in 2011. To think that Qantas has this out-weighted influence on them is nonsense.”
Joyce was speaking after appearing on a panel with Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka and hosted by Virgin founder Brett Godfrey, who now chairs Tourism and Events Queensland.
Joyce declined to comment on whether Albanese’s son – Nathan Albanese – had been extended an invitation to the Qantas chairman’s lounge, as reported in The Australian Financial Review. The airline does not divulge who is invited into the exclusive lounge, which is usually reserved for executives of large companies and politicians.
“I’ve been good mates with Albo for some time, but the assumption that whatever I do would get political favours is not happening,” he said.The federal government has refused to explain why it rejected Qatar’s attempt to increase its services to Australia, beyond stating the application was not in line with the national interest.
The government’s refusal to explain the decision, particularly when it had support from the overwhelming majority of the tourism, aviation and political spectrum, has led to ongoing speculation about its relationship with the airline.
Flight Centre boss Graham “Skroo” Turner said limiting inbound capacity to Australia was a deliberate attempt to keep airfares high (https://archive.md/o/lyL3f/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5dpvz).
The Qatar Airways bid was also opposed by five Australian women who were subjected to invasive searches at Hamad International Airport (https://archive.md/o/lyL3f/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p568ga) by Qatari police before their flight with the airline in 2020.
The women were part of a larger group who were forced to undergo internal examinations after a newborn baby was abandoned in a bin at the airport. The women are now seeking damages from Qatar Airways (https://archive.md/o/lyL3f/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5bryy) and the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority – which are both owned by the Qatari government – over the incident.
Transport Minister Catherine King said this month the decision was not made in response to the incident but is yet to comment further (https://archive.md/o/lyL3f/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5dqmr).
Hrdickla said the most important thing for local tourism was to increase the number of inbound tourists to the country.
“Job one is getting more inbound international flights to ensure there’s more opportunity to ensure there are more opportunities for inbound tourism.
“Right now, given the exchange rates, Australia should be great value for international tourists. It’s not because airfares are so high because there’s not enough capacity and there’s a huge amount of demand,” Hrdlicka said.

[dr dre]

Joyce has just granted membership to the PM’s son.

Turns out every MP in the Chairman’s Lounge gets a free pass to give to one other person of their choosing. Most MPs would choose their partner, Albo chose his son.

Whilst the closeness of politicians to the lounge in general is a topic for debate this particular story is a non issue.

[gerry111]

Alan Joyce doesn't use any influence gained by handing out memberships to the Chairman's Lounge! His 2017 Queen's birthday honours award of Companian in the Order of Australia (AC) was based on merit alone.

Another great Australian..

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Hrdickla said the most important thing for local tourism was to increase the number of inbound tourists to the country.
And the only way to do that is for them to be on Qantas or Virgin aircraft. If they're not, then it's not that important, in fact it should not be allowed.

[dragon man]

The bit at the end sums it all up.

JOYCE SET FOR FAREWELL TO POLLIESAlan Joyce’s final tour of the country as Qantas chief executive wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the town where the carrier makes most of its money and, sure enough, Joyce’s victory lap of Canberra is nearly upon us.

Qantas is throwing a shindig in Parliament House’s private member’s dining room next Wednesday for its most important stakeholders – only MPs and senators allowed – to allow Joyce to gladhand the good and the great one last time, and to help incoming chief executive Vanessa Hudson get a feel for how it’s done.

Catering will be provided by the Ponytail Express himself, Neil Perry – who is, for those who have allowed themselves to forget, not only a chef, restaurateur, author and TV celebrity, but also Qantas’s director of “food, beverage and service”.

“We would be delighted if you could attend to meet our executive and incoming CEO, and talk about Australian aviation and the many sectors it touches,” the invitation says.

No doubt there will be plenty to talk about, given Transport Minister Catherine King is still under a fair bit of pressure to explain her decision to knock back Qatar Airways’ application to operate more flights into Australia – with Qantas being one of the few opponents of the idea.

Speaking at a tourism event in Brisbane on Thursday, Joyce denied Qantas has a lock on the direction of government policy, saying the airline has a “mature relationship” with government, but gets no political favours.

Margin Call will be interested to hear feedback on the length of the line of MPs wanting to petition Joyce – or Hudson, as his heir apparent – to allow their children to join Nathan Albanese in enjoying the Qantas chairman’s lounge largesse.

There was, sadly, no response to Margin Call’s query to Anthony Albanese’s office to see whether the Prime Minister would be attending the shindig hosted by “great mate” Joyce, nor from King’s office.

Qantas is also at some risk of a slightly more hostile reception at the dinner than it traditionally receives in the ministerial corridors, judging from an email response to the invitation from one grump MP that is currently doing the rounds of Canberra.

“Can’t afford to pay their workers properly, can’t afford to invest in capex to refresh Qantas’s tired and ageing fleet, can’t get flights to run on time, can’t get passengers’ baggage to land at the same place and time as they do, can afford to piss bucket loads of cash schmoozing politicians,” the missive says

[SIUYA]

MPs and Senators attending an exclusive farewell bash for Alan Joyce hosted by Qantas in Parliament House's private dining room...

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/993x601/capture_d37da7cff394a72c545a5e97472b37e553c33ee6.png

[PoppaJo]

Why do we need to wait until November? He whinges that the media keep talking about him, why the heck did he announce a 7 month farewell tour then?

No reason why he couldn’t leave today, yesterday or back in May. Just p!ss off.

[Climb150]

Alan Joyce will be a nobody once he has left Qantas so he has to get as many "look at me" moments before he leaves.

[PoppaJo]

The next instalment from Joe Aston, unpaywalled for your convenience.


Anthony Albanese, Alan Joyce won’t let the truth set them free

Joe Aston (https://www.afr.com/by/joe-aston-hveym)
Columnist
Australian Financial Review

The first rule of Chairman’s Lounge is you don’t talk about Chairman’s Lounge. The Qantas chief certainly broke that one on Thursday.

Four days later, and the prime minister has still said nothing about the fact that his 23-year-old son is a card-carrying member of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-puts-albo-s-son-in-qantas-chairman-s-lounge-20230802-p5dtf3), which entitles the young man to free flight upgrades and bottomless champagne.

Of course, Anthony Albanese doesn’t fly Qantas himself. The sitting PM and his entourage have their own private jet operated by the Royal Australian Air Force. Plainly, Albo has called in a secret favour to ensure that in his absence, the apple of his eye always travels in the cosseted style Qantas reserves for the executives and directors of large companies.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.204%2C$multiply_3%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2 C$y_21/t_crop_custom/c_scale%2Cw_620%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto/e1fba46d9adc46b25eea1b59d621359c37eda834Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in March. Getty

One canard doing the rounds is that Nathan Albanese’s Chairman’s Lounge membership is justifiable on security grounds. Does anyone seriously believe the AFP’s personal protection branch says the regular Qantas Club is too dangerous? What a crock. By the extension of such logic, the kid could never even go to a pub. Even if the rationale was credible, it still wouldn’t explain why the PM has never disclosed it.

The PM hasn’t deigned to explain why such a valuable benefit was quietly conferred on his child alone, and nobody in question time on Thursday, or in any of his multiple media appearances over the weekend, has forced him to.
Ask yourself why the federal Liberals and Nationals haven’t said a single thing about this. Because they’re all in there alongside Albo, of course, sucking frantically on the Qantas teat. Like the American alliance and the offshore processing of asylum seekers, undeclared airline freebies are a bipartisan article of faith. Alan Joyce therefore maintains easy leverage over both sides.

And while Albo easily eluded scrutiny, it was Joyce who stepped up on Thursday (https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/no-political-favours-says-joyce-and-chairman-s-lounge-list-stays-secret-20230803-p5dtqp) to confront the revelation of Albanese jnr’s lofty Frequent Flyer status.

“I don’t deny it and at the same time don’t confirm it,” he said, as his PR flack huffed at reporters to stop asking questions on the issue. “I’ve been good mates with Albo for some time,” he added, defiantly.Typical misdirectionJoyce even insisted that Chairman’s Lounge status is “not a gift, it’s a commercial arrangement that we do. Some of the politicians are … our largest flyers and we facilitate access to our lounges if you’re in BHP, if you’re in Rio. The government has a big contract with us – it’s absolutely no different.”

Keep talking, Alan. Please, never stop.

Joyce’s comparison of federal politicians with mining executives is a typical misdirection. The quid pro quo with BHP and Rio Tinto bosses is that they direct lucrative corporate travel contracts to Qantas. Federal MPs fly Qantas but don’t themselves determine the Australian government’s travel deal with Qantas. That is (purportedly) a decision of the public service.

Chairman’s Lounge membership is absolutely different for BHP and Rio because those companies don’t regulate Qantas. BHP doesn’t hobble Qantas’ competitors or defang its supervising statutory authorities. Rio Tinto doesn’t shower Qantas with taxpayer subsidies.

The big reveal here is that Joyce sees it as a commercial arrangement. There is only one credible quid pro quo between the two counterparties: politicians get Chairman’s Lounge with all its associated trappings and, in return, Qantas gets a legal protection racket.It smellsJoyce says it’s not a gift, so what is commercial about the (secret) arrangement between the PM and Qantas?

Am I saying that Albanese is unreasonably accommodative of Qantas because Joyce put his great mate’s son in the Chairman’s Lounge? That causation is impossible to demonstrate, and by itself, a stretch.

What I am saying is that it smells, and what any mug punter understands is that you cannot accept extravagant favours from someone you regulate because that is plain as dog’s balls a conflict of interest. Indeed, the only reason Albanese kept it secret is because he knew it looked bad.

Joyce is neither confirming nor denying, like he’s the Israeli defence minister. He doesn’t seem to comprehend that nobody else denies it, everyone knows it’s true and he might just have an obligation to clear this up.

Each day, Qantas sells thousands of tickets on flights it never intends to operate (as does Virgin Australia). Each day when they are cancelled en masse, passengers and airports have zero redress (unlike in the European Union).

The Albanese government defunded the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s airline monitoring program in June with airfares at record highs and Qantas still the most complained about company in Australia. What possible justification could there be for such a decision?

When COVID-19 hit, Joyce convinced the Morrison government not to provide a $1.3 billion loan to Virgin, so his archrival collapsed into administration. Joyce then set about extracting $2.7 billion of COVID-19 subsidies, none of which were repayable.

And now the Albanese government has knocked back Qatar Airways’ application to launch 28 new weekly flights between Doha and Australia. We knew how dodgy that decision was when the government tried to blame cavity searches in Qatar three years ago, but then Transport Minister Catherine King put it down to decarbonisation. Now it’s the Australian government conducting indefensible searches – they’re searching for a plausible explanation, but there isn’t one. It’s not me saying this, it’s the entire travel industry (https://amp.smh.com.au/business/companies/flight-centre-boss-warns-ridiculous-qatar-airways-decision-will-keep-fares-high-20230720-p5dpvz.html).Tough loveJoyce produced two alternative data points. Albanese “had a go at me when we grounded the airline in 2011”. And, “if the government was doing the bidding of Qantas, then it would have not [introduced] multi-employer bargaining, which is a bigger issue [than air rights]“.

Albo was terribly cross when Joyce brought the nation to a standstill 12 years ago. Is he serious? There is actually scarce evidence Albanese did anything in 2011 beyond offering a handful of barely stern words. Albanese was transport minister for six years and incredibly, this is all Joyce can come up with.

Joyce reached into his grab bag of tough love examples and from the past decade, economy-wide industrial relations laws are literally all he’s got. They also came after Qantas illegally sacked 1700 unionised employees during COVID-19.

“This is just a nonsense that Qantas has this unbelievable influence that can dictate anything with the government,” Joyce protested. “And I don’t know how that mindset has got there because it’s just not right.”

This is almost a facsimile of his outlandish claim in May (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-s-helsinki-final-act-20230522-p5dael) that leasing Finnair aircraft, pilots and cabin crew to operate Qantas flights was “positive for the creation of [Australian] jobs and anyone who says anything else is just completely wrong”.

Here he goes again, betraying his extraordinary perceptual deficits, dialling in from Alan’s magical world, where anyone who doesn’t agree with him simply has the incorrect mindset. I can’t cope with the idea you have a valid criticism of me, therefore I will invalidate you.

Wouldn’t it be fun, occupying an unreality where everyone else is wrong and you’re always right? It can only be the rarefied air that does it, the warping quality of power.

Joyce acts as if no one is noticing. I’ll just sprinkle a dodgy favour over here, and I can neither confirm nor deny. I really had to sell $17 million of Qantas shares in June to buy an apartment even though I sold a $20 million house in July. The world is wrong.

But in fact, a multitude of Australians has noticed. When Qantas reports its record profit on August 24, every jaded road warrior at the airport waiting for their flight to be cancelled will think of Joyce and his $24 million bonanza – his free upgrade to First Class for a Premium Economy performance.

In their minds, Joyce isn’t the great man who saved the national airline, he’s the unrivalled influence peddler screwing the travelling public to the wall, entrenching his virtual monopoly position by moving politicians on a string. Everyone can see it but him.

[dragon man]

Joe Aston should be Australian of the year IMO

[gordonfvckingramsay]

Joe Aston should be Australian of the year IMO

Fvcking oath!

I’d vote for a royal commission into corruption if it were offered. As they say, if it walks like a duck…..

[blubak]

Fvcking oath!

I’d vote for a royal commission into corruption if it were offered. As they say, if it walks like a duck…..
'Wont confirm or deny'
This is 1 smug little hypocrite.

[dragon man]

Qantas shares could slide 30pc after boom, Angus Aitken warns clientsAyesha de Kretser (https://archive.md/o/FolR2/https://www.afr.com/by/ayesha-de-kretser-p535y1)Senior KEY POINTS

Why it matters: Qantas shares have soared as it benefits from booming demand
The airline must spend billions on new planes, which could cut into returns
The company is due to report its full-year financial accounts on August 24

Qantas shares could fall 30 per cent as the airline faces hefty spending on aircraft and its once-loved brand is tarnished by poor customer service, high-profile stockbroker Angus Aitken has warned his clients.
Urging them to sell, Mr Aitken wrote in a note to clients that investment analysts were too bullish on Qantas’ future performance, adding that it was “a great time to take profits” and its market capitalisation was “punchy”. https://archive.md/FolR2/f87d2fc155afde83448223a90141cd246bfe086b.webp Zucchini fritters aside, Angus Aitken has a long list of reasons to sell Qantas. Angus Aitken “How can every analyst love a stock that underneath it all has many cyclical elements? You should worry about a broker research panel that looks like this with no sells,” Mr Aitken wrote, adding that earnings could “easily go back to” $3 billion from around $4.5 billion for the last financial year.
“This sad-looking packet of vegan zucchini fritters served to me on a flight to [Queensland] to me sums up Qantas as a business and a brand,” he wrote, attaching a photograph of a meal he had been served.
“You pay a sh**load of money for what should be a premium product and the service is Z grade for those high airfares. I reckon even the hosties were embarrassed to serve this rubbish to the customers.”RELATED QUOTESQAN (https://archive.md/o/FolR2/https://www.afr.com/company/asx/qan)Qantas$6.190 3.17%1 year (https://archive.md/FolR2/again?url=https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-shares-could-slide-30pc-after-boom-angus-aitken-warns-clients-20230807-p5duke#QANYear)1 day (https://archive.md/FolR2/again?url=https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-shares-could-slide-30pc-after-boom-angus-aitken-warns-clients-20230807-p5duke#QANDay)Aug 22Feb 23Aug 234.2005.6007.000 Updated: Aug 7, 2023 – 10.25pm. Data is 20 mins delayed.
View QAN related articles (https://archive.md/o/FolR2/https://www.afr.com/company/asx/qan)In particular, Mr Aitken was scathing of Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce’s decision to ban The Australian Financial Review from its lounges, writing managers “who don’t take criticism well always worry me”.
“Part of getting paid ... as a CEO in a public company is copping some negative heat, if you don’t like it, then don’t accept tens of millions in salary and bonus and go drive an Uber,” he said, adding that many investors will look back after Mr Joyce departs and wonder why they did not sell.
In May, Qantas removed The Financial Review from its lounges after Mr Joyce was criticised in the Rear Window column. The carrier has previously pulled advertising from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after what it perceived to be negative coverage of the company in 2014.
Mr Aitken said investment was needed in the fleet after five years of Qantas doing “as little as possible” to invest in both the fleet and service overall.
“Qantas reminds me of Woolworths about 15 years ago when they were number one and invested nothing in their business, then suddenly Coles came along and started beating them,” he said.
Acknowledging he might be six months early given expectations for record profits of between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion when the airline reports its full-year results on August 24, Mr Aitken added that “the stock is fully valued and priced for zero cyclicality longer term”.
Analysts say Qantas is facing as much as $15 billion in looming capital expenditure as it takes delivery of narrow body domestic aircraft over the coming five years. But it also has to replace its fleet of A330s, which some analysts, including Morningstar’s Angus Hewitt, expect will “absorb meaningful cash flow and constrain returns to shareholders” (https://archive.md/o/FolR2/https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-set-to-outline-fleet-renewal-plan-at-profit-update-20230803-p5dtow).
“There is a lot of pent-up demand at the moment and that’s really driving tremendous profitability. We think this is about as good as it gets for airlines,” Mr Hewitt wrote in an earlier note to his clients.
Among reasons Mr Aitken gave to sell Qantas shares was the airline’s poor service, and the likely increase in competition from international carriers.
“The service is rubbish. It is hard to speak to a single person who has flown this airline in recent years who has anything other than negative anecdotes about them. That is very, very bad for Qantas’ brand,” he said.
“For full disclosure, no I am not a Chairman’s Lounge member and no, I am not writing this due to being replaced as a member by ‘working class’ Albo’s son,” he added, referring to a report in Rear Window last week that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s son had been given access to the luxury invite-only club that is usually reserved for executives and celebrities (https://archive.md/o/FolR2/https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-puts-albo-s-son-in-qantas-chairman-s-lounge-20230802-p5dtf3).

[PoppaJo]

And another..brilliant piece for tomorrow’s AFR, unpaywalled for you.

Alan Joyce’s retirement tour storms Canberra

Joe Aston (safari-reader://www.afr.com/by/joe-aston-hveym)
Columnist
Aug 9, 2023
Rear Window
https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_220%2C$height_220/t_crop_fill%2Cq_auto:best%2Cfl_any_format/ec4e2451514f597f7c1053bb930b9eddeb534380

Wednesday was a crucial day out in Canberra for Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and chief executive designate Vanessa Hudson, a petrified hostage on her predecessor’s interminable farewell tour.

When a CEO repurposes an iconic brand in his own image, for his own reasons (and with the total acquiescence of his weak chairman), can you really expect him to relinquish that brand in an orderly fashion? Whatever Hudson might’ve hoped for, Joyce’s months-long meltdown, his bonfire of brand equity, is just the price of accession for any heir to a mad king.

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.132%2C$multiply_4%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2 C$y_0/t_crop_custom/c_scale%2Cw_620%2Cq_88%2Cf_auto/5ec2e11b55c212f7db83e136cfbb6241aaa66749Alan Joyce performed his final tour of Canberra on Wednesday. Rhett Wymannone

Each of King’s explanations has been more implausible than the last. What of the thousands of local jobs that would spring from 28 new flights per week bringing 150,000 foreign tourists to Australia annually (https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/qantas-record-profit-is-costly-for-tourism-s-pandemic-recovery-20230806-p5du91)?

Secure Australian jobs! Joyce removed nearly 8000 jobs from the Qantas workforce (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-s-hostile-takeover-of-qantas-20230305-p5cpjx) in the 11 years he ran the company before COVID hit.

Qantas just launched new flights to New York via Auckland, crewed by Kiwis. Cheaper New Zealand-based flight attendants are operating Qantas flights between Brisbane and Los Angeles, and Melbourne and Delhi. Qantas’ trans-Tasman flights are crewed by Kiwi flight attendants and pilots. Qantas’ London flights are operated by London-based cabin crew.

Qantas just wet-leased two Finnair A330s (supposedly with Finnair crew attached) to take over Qantas flights to Bangkok and Singapore for two years. That deal was on the basis, Joyce angrily exclaimed (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-s-helsinki-final-act-20230522-p5dael), “they are positive for the creation of [Australian] jobs and anyone who says anything else is just completely wrong”. It emerged last week that cabin crew for those two aircraft will be provided by Asian labour hire firms!

Qantas illegally sacked 1700 baggage handlers in 2020. Qantas, the TWU and King’s cabinet colleague Tony Burke – the Workplace Relations Minister who argued in support of the TWU – are awaiting the High Court’s appeal judgment.

In April, Qantas lodged a special application with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to hire nearly 300 foreign pilots and engineers (https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/qantas-wants-to-recruit-300-foreign-pilots-and-engineers-for-domestic-fleet-20230530-p5dchm.html). While nothing has been announced, sources close to the decision say Giles has only allowed Qantas to hire 10 foreign training pilots and rejected the rest. Joyce was right – industrial relations is the one area where Albanese can’t give him whatever he wants.

As presaged elsewhere, Joyce and Hudson hosted an intimate dinner for a select group of parliamentarians in the members’ private dining room on Wednesday.

At 5pm, as a kind of ambush amuse-bouche, Labor Senator Tony Sheldon, his successor as TWU Secretary Michael Kaine, and ACTU president Michele O’Neilheld a briefing for the Labor caucus. “For those who are also attending the Alan Joyce dinner … the briefing provides an opportunity to hear both sides of the Qantas story,” the invite read. More than 20 members and senators attended.

At Joyce’s dinner, naturally, main course was lame duck. Minister King was a late scratching. We couldn’t confirm whether Burke or Giles attended. Peter Duttonwasn’t even invited. The prime minister dropped by, only to pick up a new Chairman’s Lounge card for his dog Toto.

Can’t you just visualise the bonhomie? Joyce the grizzled entertainer, repeating the same anecdotes, cracking the same jokes. This is how it’s done, Vanessa, they eat right out of my hand! The strain of fake laughter, MPs just desperate for the end – when they can form a line, like at a mafia wedding, to petition Joyce for their freebies. Flights for their mistresses. Free upgrades for their idiot children. It’s the Canberra bubble, baby, the circle of public life. Snigger all you like, but no wheel turns without grease.

Luckily, Wednesday was not Joyce’s final dance on the political stage. The Senate select committee on the cost of living has summoned him to appear before its inquiry on August 28 in Melbourne. For someone who’s not a public figure (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-the-man-who-wasn-t-there-20220828-p5bdel), you’d have to think this is a pretty unreasonable level of public scrutiny.

As for Australia’s cost of living crisis, Joyce brings deep personal insight to the table. Only two months ago he bought his neighbour’s apartment for $9 million (https://www.afr.com/street-talk/alan-joyce-sells-17m-in-qantas-shares-20230606-p5defk) so he could knock out the wall and create a $20 million penthouse. 18 months earlier, he might’ve picked it up for $7 million! Asset inflation – it’s killing working families.

I want to see Alan Joyce the econometrician explain to the Australian parliament how artificially restricting the supply of airline seats is good for lowering airfares. I want to hear the logical contortions fall from his lips. You betcha, he’ll try. Better yet, he’ll even believe it – and that, alone, will be worth the bus ticket.

[dragon man]

It won’t be the same when Joyce is gone and we won’t have these articles any more.

[CaptainInsaneO]

I'd love to know how much of everyone elses money he plans to spend on his going away party

[SIUYA]

A great post:

So Alan Joyce is leaving Qantas. The highlight of his brilliant career: turning a much loved Aussie icon into a widely distrusted, expensive, money-grubbing and unreliable outfit that doesn’t give a **** about its passengers because it doesn’t have to. A great achievement.

Source: twitter.com/MikeCarlton01/status/1656521805807632384

The once much-loved Aussie icon, the Flying Kangaroo, has steadily been destroyed with the acquiescence of the Qantas Board and its 'weak chairman'.

Here's what it represents today...

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/538x386/dying_kangaroo_28ae1161ea176666498c8c8f30e921d0358c152a.png

[gordonfvckingramsay]

Wasn’t there a book that QF had banned from being published some years ago exposing the truth about the way this operation is run?

[PoppaJo]

Wasn’t there a book that QF had banned from being published some years ago exposing the truth about the way this operation is run?
I understand that Alan’s speechwriter was blocked from releasing a manuscript that would apparently ‘damage the airline’. They came to a confidential settlement.

I don’t think the ‘truth about the way the operation is run’ is a trade secret these days. Joe Aston has summed it up in the last paragraph in his pieces.

May the articles continue.

[gordonfvckingramsay]

I understand that Alan’s speechwriter was blocked from releasing a manuscript that would apparently ‘damage the airline’. They came to a confidential settlement.

I don’t think the ‘truth about the way the operation is run’ is a trade secret these days. Joe Aston has summed it up in the last paragraph in his pieces.

May the articles continue.

Right you are. I forgot the circumstances around that one, shame it wasn’t released, but as you say, it’s pretty moot.

All hail Joe Aston!

[LAME2]

Try this for speechwriter case background

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/qantas-takes-speechwriter-to-court/7lb3eqcvw

[dragon man]

A Joyceful Farewell – looming strike at Qantas’ miners carrierby Michael Sainsbury (https://michaelwest.com.au/author/michaelsainsbury/) | Aug 21, 2023 | Business (https://michaelwest.com.au/category/business/), Latest Posts (https://michaelwest.com.au/category/latest-posts/)

https://michaelwest.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/qantas.matildas.jpg (https://michaelwest.com.au/a-joyceful-farewell-looming-strike-at-qantas-miners-carrier/qantas-matildas/)Image: Qantas, Twitter (https://michaelwest.com.au/a-joyceful-farewell-looming-strike-at-qantas-miners-carrier/qantas-matildas/)

While Alan Joyce continues to bask in the glory of his Qantas farewell tour, all is not well at the airline’s Network Aviation subsidiary. With a growing number of pilots paid well below award wages, strike action may impact on FIFO workers and threaten mining profits. Michael Sainsbury reports.

Last Sunday, at a meeting in Perth, pilots belonging to the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP), which covers about 80% of the around 240 pilots at Network Aviation, agreed to proceed with an application for Protected Industrial Action (PIA).

That’s the same route that the division’s flight attendants plan to go down after a successful PIA vote was tallied last week, “much to the concern of management”, as one insider said. Both pilots and flight attendants are the worst paid in the Qantas Group, according to documents seen by MWM. They also miss out on rostering flexibility, optional time off and their staff perks – including basics such as meals – are down a rung from staff on the East coast.

MWM has learned that Network’s cabin crew, totalling about 300, could be on strike within a week.

Perth based Network Aviation started life as a mining charter specialist, catering to the countless thousands of fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers who operate Australia’s economic engine room, the iron ore mines of the Pilbara and their copper, zinc, nickel and lithium cousins. This remains its main business, but it is fast expanding into regular passenger services. It has taken over Qantas routes from Perth to Darwin, and insiders say plans to add flights from Perth to Adelaide and Hobart are well advanced.

A strike action has the capacity to severely upend Australia’s mining sector, as well as souring Alan Joyce’s farewell tour. Qantas’ resources are stretched, as one insider says, “to breaking point;” On any given day, a sick pilot or cabin crew member can throw the entire group into turmoil. Even staff now call it “Jetstar with a red tail,” – due to its ultra low-cost model.


Employee survey resultsTo add more angst to Alan’s victory lap, well certainly for his successor, the airline’s hapless finance chief Vanessa Hudson, a recent survey of Qantas’ Sydney International Base pilots distributed by Sydney International base manager Georgina Sutton, has excoriated management and the company’s once-famed culture. That’ll be one of the many issues for his successor, the airline’s hapless finance chief Vanessa Hudson, to remedy.

With 41% participation, it found that “Employees do not feel like they are treated with respect at work” that they have a
Lack of comfort voicing ideas and opinions, and a belief that opinions and ideas cannot be shared openly or without fear of retaliation.
A whopping 74% found that “the employee experience” did not meet their expectations, indeed only 5% found that it did, 22% were neutral. The kicker, despite Joyce and his senior team’s famous “town hall” events, allegedly designed for exactly that, was the: “Lack of open and honest communication at the Qantas Group.”

Of course, rather than being chastened by the survey, Qantas cosseted white collar managers are angry because, after all, it’s all about them – rather than staff or customers.

This dire lack of communication extends to the company’s dealings with the media. MWM has asked about two male pilots who suddenly left the group in recent months, following two separate incidents in Bangalore, India that involved inappropriate behaviour with women – including a flight attendant. The Qantas chief spin doctor Luke Enright – whose official title is the rather grand Head of External Affairs – would neither confirm nor deny the events. He referred instead to “gossip and rumours” – rather than answering legitimate questions.
Private equity playSeasoned observers of Alan’s strategy of running Qantas like a private equity play will know that this is catnip to the annual multi-millionaire: swap out Qantas mainline aircraft with Network planes, often repainted, ageing Jetstar A 320s, and slash costs by using pilots and cabin crew on significantly lower wages that those they have replaced. Slice and dice, divide and conquer.

The Network Aviation Pilots Enterprise Agreement 2016 expired in October 2020 and over the past seven years of operating under this agreement, Network Aviation has experienced substantial growth. The number of pilots and aircraft has more than doubled, alongside the addition of a new A320 fleet. This growth has not, however, been reflected in the pilot industrial space.

“Without a suitable agreement in place and with salaries frozen under the 2016 Agreement, Network pilots’ pay has decreased compared to the minimum Award equivalent. In 2022, approximately 62 pilots were paid below the minimum Award equivalent, with the majority experiencing a shortfall of around $7,200. This number increases every year a new enterprise agreement is delayed,” AFAP said in a summary note obtained by MWM.

The union noted in its latest counter-claim to Qantas that its Fokker 100 pilots saw a “drop of nearly 24% in effective salaries in the previous 15 years.”

“The striking disparity exists in the total remuneration received by Network Aviation pilots compared to their counterparts in Qantas Short Haul. It is estimated that Network Aviation pilots receive approximately 50% less in remuneration,” the AFAP claim noted. That’s half pay for flying Perth-Darwin on an A320 compared with a Qantas mainline flight on a near identical 737. Customers, of course, pay the same price.

AFAP pilot membership numbers have doubled in the last year at Network Aviation with pilots leaving the Qantas union the Australian International Pilots Union, whose president Tony Lucas has an office near the Qantas Industrial relations boss, and the Transport Workers Union, which has long had designs on broader representation of pilots. Some maintain dual membership due to insurance commitments.

One manager, when told of impending industrial action by NA flight attendants, said that she was “disappointed”. Not as disappointed as the flight attendants and pilots – arguably the hardest working crews in the entire groups – who are paid wages that have, at times, been under award.
The long goodbyeAnd so to Corporate Australia’s longest goodbye, which began back in February when Alan said that he would depart “before the end of 2023”. Then, on March 31 when Joyce held the COVID-delayed 100th anniversary bash for what is now, surely, the Limping Kangaroo replete with 1,200 guests and glittering hand picked entertainers, including Kylie Minogue.



This was the surest sign yet that Australia’s, nay the entire globe’s best, at least the best remunerated, airline CEO would finally pack it all in and retire to a comfy life in Australia’s boardrooms and arts organisations.

Since then, Alan’s adoring public has been drip fed, bit by bit. In April, after an exhaustive international search, the Qantas board star studded with people – well all but one – who have precisely nil experience in the airlines sector – came up with a short list of two people who sit in the airlines’ mahogany row in Mascot. Along with Hudson, there was Joyce’s long time bag carrier, Loyalty chief Olivia Wirth. Once Hudson’s victory was secured, she wasted no time shuffling the executive deck, promoting loyalists and leaving Wirth stewing in her old job. So much for the sisterhood.

Hudson’s ascension was announced on May 1, but with the proviso that Joyce would not actually leave until six months down the track in November. He needed this unusually long time because there were many parties to throw and attend, a house to sell, bumper results to announce and more cash to shovel out the door to shareholders. Instead of investing in his increasingly threadbare fleet and maintenance division. And you know, letting go of a sinecure that has earned him over $130 million over 15 years must be tough.

But now it is up to Hudson to start spending money to fix the company’s fleet, wrestle with increasingly restless, uppity unions? All threatening the airline’s hallowed share price – and the Qantas board’s sleepy compliance with management.

Qantas, under the stewardship of Alan Joyce, has become the textbook case of neo-liberal corporatism. The company became the largest ever recipient of public funding during Covid, yet its aggressive workplace relations and its brawls with the unions led to a cultural decline.

Even though the hard tactics were welcomed by business groups and investors, the decline in customer service and efficiency, along with the declining staff morale, led to an erosion in public confidence and damage to the famous brand.

That was compounded when the Federal Court twice found Qantas to have sacked workers illegally in a suit by the Transport Workers Union (TWU).

Qantas took its case to the High Court to appeal on grounds the Fair Work Act had not been interpreted properly.

[dragon man]

Anthony Albanese’s son in PwC internshipJoe Aston (https://archive.md/o/Uw9r3/https://www.afr.com/by/joe-aston-hveym) and Myriam Robin (https://archive.md/o/Uw9r3/https://www.afr.com/by/myriam-robin-guxp6d)Aug 20, 2023 – 8.15pm
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It’s coming up on three weeks since this column published the revelation that Anthony Albanese had procured a membership of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge for his adult son Nathan (https://archive.md/o/Uw9r3/https://www.afr.com/rear-window/alan-joyce-puts-albo-s-son-in-qantas-chairman-s-lounge-20230802-p5dtf3) and never declared it on the parliamentary register of interests.
This cannot be brushed aside as normal. Yes, all federal MPs and their spouses are given Chairman’s Lounge membership. But in the 15 years Alan Joyce has been chief executive of Qantas, no other serving prime minister – and no other politician, full stop – has prevailed upon the airline to also provide Chairman’s Lounge membership to their progeny. https://archive.md/Uw9r3/c0c9c7dd272809040b53da66da284c642002c31a.webp Anthony Albanese should exercise better judgment, and proper disclosure. Alex Ellinghausen To this day, Albanese still has not been required to answer a single question about this. Not in multiple television and radio interviews. Not in question time by the Liberal and National parties, nor by the teal independents – all elected on a platform of restoring integrity to the parliament and all of whom, upon their election, accepted membership (https://archive.md/o/Uw9r3/https://www.afr.com/rear-window/teals-join-party-hacks-in-the-chairman-s-lounge-20230501-p5d4o9) of the Chairman’s Lounge. Albanese refused to take questions at a major Qantas media event he headlined with Joyce (https://archive.md/o/Uw9r3/https://www.afr.com/rear-window/qantas-the-only-voice-reaching-anthony-albanese-20230815-p5dwt2) last week.
At this point, we have another revelation. In the first half of 2021, while he was still opposition leader, Albanese had a conversation with PwC’s then government relations boss Sean Gregory, who was pushed out of the firm in June in the scattergun purge over the tax leaks scandal (https://archive.md/o/Uw9r3/https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/pwc-australia-names-eight-more-partners-it-says-where-involved-in-tax-leaks-scandal-20230703-p5dla7).
According to multiple sources within PwC, Albanese and Gregory discussed an internship at PwC for Albanese’s son Nathan. Gregory then passed on Nathan’s information to the firm’s HR department and in June 2021, Nathan completed a two-week, unpaid placement in PwC’s Economics & Policy Unit in Sydney under PwC’s chief economist Jeremy Thorpe. At a function months later, the Labor leader thanked PwC chief executive Tom Seymour for organising the internship, which was the first Seymour even knew about it.
PwC declined to comment. In an email, a spokesman for the prime minister said, “What you have suggested is incorrect” but then declined to clarify what was incorrect. The Prime Minister’s Office also declined to return multiple phone calls.
Bear in mind, there is no unpaid two-week internship program at PwC. There is no application process open to the public. There is no twice-yearly intake. This is an opportunity provided on an individual, ad hoc basis almost exclusively to the relatives of influential people.
It’s an opportunity provided reluctantly. No undergraduate student is qualified to do any productive client work, so menial tasks must be invented to occupy them. What’s more, their access to information at PwC is highly restricted because of – wait for it – rules around confidentiality! Major LOLs.
So, then, why would PwC do it? For one reason. The same reason you make a political donation – it’s a variation of the same theme: to earn the firm a place in the trust and good favour of that influential parent.
This is how corporate Australia operates, of course. It is how the world works. Any parent would – and does – use their connections to gain an advantage for their children. More broadly, gratuities, winks, nods and fast-tracks are all part of the game of mates in the private sector.
The game of mates, however, must end where public officialdom begins. You can’t have the family of government ministers receiving undisclosed patronage from companies the government regulates or that do business with the government.
Does that make it harder for the sons and daughters of elected leaders to get ahead without their parents playing the role of advancer? Harder than the offspring of CEOs, maybe, but certainly not harder than the offspring of truck drivers or aged care nurses. Having the surname Albanese (or Howard or Keating) and the forwarding address “Kirribilli House” on your CV is a decent professional head start without Dad needing to pick up the phone.Serious issueNathan, who graduated from university in October last year, now works full-time at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It’s safe to say he’s the only junior burger in the institutional bank with Chairman’s Lounge privileges. Imagine the next trip to Melbourne. “Sorry lads, I’ll see you all on the plane – unless you’d care to join me for a grass-fed eye fillet and a half-bottle of Ruinart blanc de blancs before take-off?”
His father’s first job out of uni was also at CommBank, his first and only job in the “real world” – a bloated public service organisation – before sliding irreparably into the Canberra bubble where reaching into your own wallet is almost never the done thing. Albo said last week he would never have privatised the CBA. If only. Nathan would’ve been CEO by now – or at least a member of the executive leadership team.
The staff directory of every investment bank and advisory firm in South-East Asia is loaded with the extended family of the region’s despots. Even poor princeling Alex Turnbull – an established liar under oath – toiled at Goldman Sachs in Singapore while his father was in the Lodge.
This is a serious issue because we should expect that our politicians aren’t influenced in any way by favours given to them or to members of their family. And how do we ever verify these favours if they are not declared on the parliamentary register of interests?
Perhaps emboldened by the lack of any scrutiny on the matter outside of this column, Albanese shows zero interest in coming clean on Nathan’s Chairman’s Lounge membership. This only leaves the public to wonder what else we don’t know about.
Take, in contrast, Penny Wong’s most recent updates to her register of interests. “Qatar Airways upgrade to First Class on flight QR908 from Doha to Sydney on September 25, 2022 … Hotel upgrade in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from a standard room to a Park Suite… Hotel upgrade in Paris, France from a standard room to a junior suite.” That is a woman with nothing to hide.
We are not suggesting this is the crime of the century. Nathan Albanese received no financial benefit here (although his Chairman’s Lounge membership has a monetary value). This is nevertheless a matter of legitimate public interest. The Australian media has long reported on the perquisites of the dependent adult children of prime ministers – most notably the scholarship Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances received to attend a college whose chairman, a Liberal donor, had even bought clothes for the Liberal leader.
None of this should be construed as an attack on the Prime Minister’s son, who has done nothing wrong. We would be very happy to leave Nathan Albanese out of our coverage. However, that would require his father to exercise better judgment, and proper disclosure.

[dragon man]

You can’t help but think that if Albanese didn’t have double standards he wouldn’t have any standards.

[dragon man]

QANTAS SHOULDN’T ADD ITS VOICE TO THE REFERENDUM
Tansy HarcourtQantas boss Alan Joyce and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese grabbed the spotlight when they stood side by side last week in a Qantas hanger to unveil the Yes campaign for the voice to parliament. But the issue has led to angry questions about who chooses the national carrier’s social policies – and whether a publicly listed company should be spending its time and money promoting a sadly divisive and increasingly political policy.

Investors are hoping incoming chief executive Vanessa Hudson will be more circumspect.

Qantas, after all, has not been state-owned for about 30 years. And it uses this point – a seemingly unfair disadvantage – continually when lobbying against rivals.

The flying kangaroo argued against government support for rival Virgin Australia when the airline was near collapse during the pandemic, and tapped the same rhetoric to encourage the government to block increased competition from oil-rich state-owned airlines such as Qatar *Airways.

It did the same thing against Emirates in the early 2000s, before joining forces with them.

It was confusing, then, to see Albanese standing beside Joyce and declaring “Yes is the true spirit of Australia” while unveiling three Qantas aircraft showing off the PM’s message beside the famous kangaroo logo.

The Yes campaign has plenty of merit. But as prominent fund manager Geoff Wilson points out, so do a number of other issues, including his pet project of protecting franking credits on retirees’ dividends, which the Albanese government is looking to change.

“What about ‘Frank off Government’ on Qantas planes?” he asks. “This is a policy that is going to have a serious impact on the cost of capital and I would love to see them put that on a few of their planes.”

Adding fuel to the fire after this week’s joint press event were two revelations. One, that the PM’s son has been lolling about in Qantas’s uber-elite invite-only Chairman’s Lounge. And continuing disquiet over Transport Minister Catherine King’s decision to block rival Qatar Airways from increasing its Australian services.

As Wilson points out, there are plenty of issues “impacting the whole of Australia”.

The housing crisis is certainly one. Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar has canned the national cabinet’s new housing target, and didn’t go as far as calling for “build more homes” to be stuck on Qantas tails, but did say the airline should stop meddling in politics.

“It’s entirely counterproductive for Qantas to be weighing in on political issues open for public discussion and ultimately a vote,” said Sukkar. “I suspect most Australians would like a little less virtue signalling from Qantas and more focus on having their planes take off on time, or at all.”

He may have a point. Qantas is swimming in money at the moment as record demand outstrips supply – helped of course by airlines such as Qatar not being allowed extra flights even after helping Australia and the US evacuate people from Afghanistan.

But while profits boil over, the airline has struggled with customer service, being the No.1 for complaints in the country, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commis*sion’s latest quarterly report.

New data from Roy Morgan puts Qantas as the nation’s 13th most distrusted brand in the economy, making it the most distrusted airline, even compared with its low cost unit Jetstar, which was 16th most distrusted.

Sequoia Asset Management investment manager Winston Sammut says he would rather Qantas focus on problems such as on-time performance, customer service and rebuilding its fleet.

“I’d be a lot happier if he was focused on those issues,” says Sammut, who believes supporting the Yes vote will not add to the Qantas proposition. “At the moment there will be as many people who are happy as unhappy with it. Does it add to the bottom line? No. Will more people fly with Qantas? No.”

From a governance perspective, there is also a question about how much the board supported the call to push hard for the Yes campaign.

The decision to plaster “Yes” on the tails was not universally supported by the Qantas board, and while a spokesman said it did get discussed and approved at board meeting, it was not in any board paper for approval.

Mr Wilson says this kind of decision should require clear board endorsement.

“In terms of leadership, I would be very disappointed if they made those decisions without the board agreeing to it,” says Wilson, who says he is not telling people how to vote on the voice.

Politicians’ relationships with Qantas are always fraught. On one hand the airline is benefiting from restricted supply and getting away with poor service, but on the other there is an addictive quality to the Qantas Status Credits that politicians get every time they fly – usually at the front of the plane – that keeps them hungry for upgrades and lounge privileges.

For the current Labor leader, there is also the not insignificant fact that Qantas illegally fired about 2000 union-represented baggage handlers during the pandemic, although the airline is appealing this ruling.

On Friday at the Labor Conference, Albanese defended the government’s decision to block Qatar, describing Australia as “the most competitive market in the world”, which is patently untrue on most reliable measures.

“There is already an incredibly competitive international aviation market here in Australia,” Albanese told reporters as he stepped in to defend Joyce’s airline. “Qantas aren’t able to fly into any airport that they wish to. Australian airlines have limits in where they can go. That is the way that international air services agreements work.”

Those who know Hudson say the widely-liked executive will have enough on her plate without taking such an overt stance.

The incoming boss of Qantas says the airline has been working hard to improve customer service.

It also has a massive task ahead to rebuild its fleet.

Fortunately for the Red Roo, it’s tipping a bumper full year profit of about $2.48bn, which gives it plenty of cash for planes

[Bug]

Latest article by Joe Aston AFR Rear Window

https://www.afr.com/rear-window/anthony-albanese-s-outhouse-blows-over-20230822-p5dylp
Anthony Albanese’s outhouse blows over

Joe Aston (https://www.afr.com/by/joe-aston-hveym)Columnist

Aug 22, 2023 – 8.00pm



Finally, on Monday, Anthony Albanese was asked to explain his procurement (and non-disclosure) of two favours for his adult son: membership of Qantas’ exclusive Chairman’s Lounge and a custom internship at PwC (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/anthony-albanese-s-son-in-pwc-internship-20230820-p5dxzm).



Anthony Albanese says he complies “completely” with the parliamentary register of interests. Eddie Jim

“My son is not a public figure. He’s a young person trying to make his way in the world … I completely comply with all the requirements of the [parliamentary interests] register.”

Who ever said his son is a public figure? Nobody has even suggested that. That’s a classic deflection. It’s the prime minister using his adult child as a human shield to thwart legitimate questions about his own judgment and his own conduct.

This is about Albanese’s son not making his own way in the world. It’s about Albanese laying the yellow brick road for his son using the highest public office in the land, providing his son with advantages that no one else gets by soliciting favours from two vendors doing hundreds of millions of dollars of business each year with the Albanese government. One of those vendors, Qantas, run by Albo’s “great mate” Alan Joyce (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/qantas-the-only-voice-reaching-anthony-albanese-20230815-p5dwt2), has benefited commercially (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/anthony-albanese-alan-joyce-won-t-let-the-truth-set-them-free-20230806-p5ducb) from the Albanese government’s incredibly suspicious (https://www.afr.com/rear-window/minister-for-qantas-catherine-king-crashes-on-take-off-20230816-p5dx3y) interventions in aviation policy.

Can we agree that Anthony Albanese is a public figure? If so, did he solicit a Chairman’s Lounge membership for his son and why won’t he declare it? They’re simple questions with simple answers. They are questions for a man who only 15 months ago promised to (https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-reveals-two-term-strategy-if-labor-wins-20220515-p5alg9.html) “change the way politics operates in this country” by “actually answering questions”.

Nationals leader David Littleproud intervened for a second time on Tuesday to defend the prime minister. “I have a real issue about us and the media trying to bring in family members,” he told Patricia Karvelas on Radio National, “because sometimes there are even more roadblocks than … actual advantages [in] having a surname like Albanese or Littleproud.”

Littleproud has described his own father, a former minister in the Queensland government, as like an “invisible hand” in his life. Yet nobody – repeat, nobody – is suggesting the surname Littleproud would offer any advantage. Far from it.

“When it comes to someone’s son or daughter … trying to make their way in the workforce, they need to be respected to be able to do that on their own merits,” he continued. “I’m sure that whatever he’s elevated to, whatever position he gets, he gets that on his own volition.”

Independently verified

With such powers of reasoning, you can readily see why he’s barely clinging onto his leadership. Is Littleproud seriously suggesting that the prime minister’s son was elevated to Chairman’s Lounge membership of his own volition and on his own merits? It has already been established that Albanese secured his son’s bespoke PwC internship with the firm’s chief economist by raising the matter directly with PwC’s chief lobbyist. That was independently verified by the Financial Times, the world’s pre-eminent business newspaper, which ran the story on its front page (https://www.ft.com/content/ee94feb7-b8e9-46be-9841-9abf7a22bd68) on Tuesday.

Albanese, of course, is relying on the fact that only the financial press has really been interested in this story to date. If it was running on Kyle & Jackie O, he’d be taking it seriously. It’s not, and maybe that’s because he went to Kyle Sandilands’ wedding and lent the legitimacy of his office to that numbnut. There’s another favour traded. It’s all part of Albo’s calculus.



In the political game of mates, favours are the currency. It’s no different to the stock market in that you win by providing favours when they’re cheap and easy, then collect them later at their highest value. That’s how you rise. But in that game, you blur the lines between the political and corporate worlds at your own risk.

What would it take for the prime minister to say “Yep, I did that. I was striving for my son, but I shouldn’t have, I’ve had his membership cancelled, let’s move on”. You’d have respect for him. You really would.

Yet he can’t bring himself to do that, to acknowledge this wasn’t the crime of the century, just a lapse of judgment. The cover-up is always worse than the crime and it also affords us real insight into his character.

Albanese says he’s complied with the requirements of the parliament’s register of interests. That may be true but then what farce of a register is the parliament really running? Surely there is a place for a genuine debate about that?

What public interest could there possibly be in the kind of benefits Albanese has solicited not being declared publicly? Someone please explain that to me. Are we seriously OK with MPs bowling up and extracting undeclared favours from companies the Australian government hands our taxpayer money to? Give my daughter a job, give my boy a Chairman’s Lounge membership, give my au pair a visa, fly my mistress to Italy. The itch turns into a scratch and before you know it, it’s a full-body rash.

Remember, no government vendor, no regulated business, ever trades a favour without expecting something in return and when those favours aren’t declared, they own you. If Alan Joyce came out today and said “Yep, Albo asked me for that extra Chairman’s Lounge membership and he asked me to keep it on the down-low”, the prime minister would be on his knees at the Lodge, dry-retching. Secret favours make him susceptible and that’s not what the Australian public elected him or anyone else to be.



What Albanese is asking us to believe is that none of this matters. I grew up in public housing, swallow my origin myth, I’m not as bad as ScoMo, I’m a DJ, I’m a single dad, whatever. Just pick your favourites from my smorgasbord of image management. Nobody reads the AFR, so I’ll say nothing. It’s all incorrect, my office won’t return calls, and somewhere out there a bag of hammers calling itself David Littleproud will leap to my defence.

Albo is nowhere on this, because there’s nowhere to go. The outhouse has fallen over and he’s exposed without any prospect of redeeming his modesty.

[dragon man]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TLqUeHiFxc