Joyce ‘retires’ early 👍
Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce has been threatened with jail time if he refuses to front a public inquiry into the blocking of extra flights from Qatar.
In an extraordinary escalation, coalition senators confirmed they would summon Mr Joyce when he next returns to Australia and wouldn’t rule out further legal action if he doesn’t comply.
It capped a tense morning of questioning, with senior transport bureaucrats stonewalling attempts to release internal documents about the government’s decision to block Qatar Airways’ bid to double its flights to Australia.
The coalition declared only Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Transport Minister Catherine King and Mr Joyce could explain why the decision was made.
Asked twice if they would seriously consider trying to jail Mr Joyce if he didn’t comply with the summons, Senator Bridget McKenzie would not rule it out.
“There are a whole raft of processes within the standing orders and the procedures of the Senate which will eventually make it very hard for former CEO Joyce to not appear,” she told reporters.
“He sought to rip his customers off, pocket over half a billion dollars worth of COVID flight credits, sold tickets to ghost flights and who indeed illegally sacked 1700 workers … this was no ordinary CEO.”
The Senate could theoretically jail someone found to be in contempt for up to six months.
Mr Joyce had told the Senate committee he couldn’t attend their inquiry in person or via video link due to personal obligations while overseas, and could only be formally summoned once back in Australia.
The inquiry is due to report by October 9 but the parliamentary committee has indicated it intends to summon Mr Joyce regardless of whether he returns before that date.
Senator McKenzie also formally invited Ms King to front the probe, after her office was caught instructing a senior Transport Department official to not answer one of the inquiry’s questions about a meeting with Mr Joyce.
“MO (minister’s office) view is it is not for the department to answer re the minister’s diary the question should be directed to the minister,” the text sent from her office to deputy secretary Marisa Purvis-Smith read.
That prompted a stinging rebuke from frustrated Coalition Senator Simon Birmingham.
“If Minister King’s office is saying ‘get stuffed’ when her own department is seeking to provide information to this committee, then Minister King should front up herself,” he told the inquiry.
“It is completely unacceptable.”
The inquiry uncovered that Qatar had officially asked the Albanese government to rethink its decision to block the extra flights.
It was told Australia received the formal request in August and had 60 days to respond.
Australian Qatar Business Council chair Simon Harrison said the decision to block the additional flights was frustrating, adding there was a “high probability” there was a sweetheart deal between Qantas and the government
In an extraordinary escalation, coalition senators confirmed they would summon Mr Joyce when he next returns to Australia and wouldn’t rule out further legal action if he doesn’t comply.
It capped a tense morning of questioning, with senior transport bureaucrats stonewalling attempts to release internal documents about the government’s decision to block Qatar Airways’ bid to double its flights to Australia.
The coalition declared only Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Transport Minister Catherine King and Mr Joyce could explain why the decision was made.
Asked twice if they would seriously consider trying to jail Mr Joyce if he didn’t comply with the summons, Senator Bridget McKenzie would not rule it out.
“There are a whole raft of processes within the standing orders and the procedures of the Senate which will eventually make it very hard for former CEO Joyce to not appear,” she told reporters.
“He sought to rip his customers off, pocket over half a billion dollars worth of COVID flight credits, sold tickets to ghost flights and who indeed illegally sacked 1700 workers … this was no ordinary CEO.”
The Senate could theoretically jail someone found to be in contempt for up to six months.
Mr Joyce had told the Senate committee he couldn’t attend their inquiry in person or via video link due to personal obligations while overseas, and could only be formally summoned once back in Australia.
The inquiry is due to report by October 9 but the parliamentary committee has indicated it intends to summon Mr Joyce regardless of whether he returns before that date.
Senator McKenzie also formally invited Ms King to front the probe, after her office was caught instructing a senior Transport Department official to not answer one of the inquiry’s questions about a meeting with Mr Joyce.
“MO (minister’s office) view is it is not for the department to answer re the minister’s diary the question should be directed to the minister,” the text sent from her office to deputy secretary Marisa Purvis-Smith read.
That prompted a stinging rebuke from frustrated Coalition Senator Simon Birmingham.
“If Minister King’s office is saying ‘get stuffed’ when her own department is seeking to provide information to this committee, then Minister King should front up herself,” he told the inquiry.
“It is completely unacceptable.”
The inquiry uncovered that Qatar had officially asked the Albanese government to rethink its decision to block the extra flights.
It was told Australia received the formal request in August and had 60 days to respond.
Australian Qatar Business Council chair Simon Harrison said the decision to block the additional flights was frustrating, adding there was a “high probability” there was a sweetheart deal between Qantas and the government
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The Senate Inquiries serve the same purpose as Parliament Question Time - a chance for pollies to grandstand, bloviate, regurgitate talking points and attack their opponents. And yes very hypocritical for McKenzie, one of the biggest rorters in parliament, to be accusing any else of impropriety. I get a feeling these pollies going on the attack currently are trying to appear squeaky clean angels before the NACC really gets going……
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Singapore angry at air route denial
I get a feeling these pollies going on the attack currently are trying to appear squeaky clean angels before the NACC really gets going……
Whoa! You’re usually not that far off target, LL, but that one didn’t even land on the range.
The Qantas Board’s and CEO’s interactions with Commonwealth officials and politicians are smack in the middle of the NACC’s jurisdiction. And Gladys crashed and burned for not revealing the relationship with Dazzling Daryl. (And it’s ‘ICAC’ in NSW. You must be Mexican?)
The Qantas Board’s and CEO’s interactions with Commonwealth officials and politicians are smack in the middle of the NACC’s jurisdiction. And Gladys crashed and burned for not revealing the relationship with Dazzling Daryl. (And it’s ‘ICAC’ in NSW. You must be Mexican?)
The relationship itself wasn't the corrupt part, it was the fact that he had told her about how he was going to be making money on land deals and using his position as a politician to secure it. The Qantas Board and CEO are not part of the Australian Government public sector.
A political decision is not always a corrupt decision. The NACC has had 1000 reports of corruption, it is only investigating 4. From what i can tell the NACC will have no more powers than a Senate Inquiry. Off target you think, lets wait and see
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is an independent Australian Government agency that detects, investigates and reports on serious or systemic corrupt conduct in the Australian Government public sector.
Rear Window 
Joe AstonColumnistSep 28, 2023 – 5.57pm
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Wednesday evening’s appearance before a Senate inquiry by Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and new chief executive Vanessa Hudsonwas a golden opportunity squandered.
Sitting side by side, the logical discrepancy between their individual positions was dazzling.
Goyder said, “I think Alan Joyce did an excellent job as CEO” only moments after Hudson conceded that “we have let the wider Australian public down, and we understand why people are frustrated and why some have lost faith in us.”
But if Joyce did such an excellent job, why is Hudson apologising? That’s what no senator asked Goyder to explain.
Only 24 hours earlier, the Australian and International Pilots Association called on Goyder to resign. Goyder even told the inquiry that “We’ve got amazing pilots [at Qantas].” Yet no senator asked Goyder the shattering question: The people who you trust to keep your customers alive have lost confidence in your leadership. How can you possibly continue?
Goyder said, yet again, that “there’s a significant sum of money” in Joyce’s long-term bonus “that is subject to malus and clawback depending on how various things unfold in terms of Qantas’ reputation.” Yet no senator asked him to reconcile that assertion with the Qantas annual report saying that clawback is only available “in the event of serious misconduct, breach of obligations to [Qantas] or material misstatements in Qantas’ financial statements.” He would’ve frozen like Mitch McConnell.
No senator asked Goyder if reputational damage really is a clawback trigger, and given Hudson says Australians have lost faith in Qantas, why he hasn’t clawed Joyce’s bonus back already.
Goyder wasn’t even asked about letting Joyce sell $17 million of Qantas shares at the top of the market on June 1, with five months remaining in his CEO tenure and when Qantas had already received multiple compulsory information notices from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Qantas general counsel Andrew Finch. Alex Ellinghausen As it happened, the star witness of the session wasn’t Goyder or Hudson, but Qantas’ general counsel, Andrew Finch.
Only three weeks ago, Goyder promised humility. Finch didn’t get his chairman’s memo. Finch’s every interjection oozed contempt for the proceedings. His animosity and semantics prompted inquiry chairwoman Bridget McKenzie to retort, “We can play LA Law all you like.”
Even Goyder and Hudson were respectful of the proceedings, no matter how cringeworthy the senators’ hectoring. Not Finch, oh no. He swaggered in, mistaking himself for Kerry Packer, not an undistinguished salaryman. Speaking as if a plum were lodged in his mouth and looking for all the world like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Finch was the personification of everything that has gone wrong at Qantas.
This is the guy advising Goyder’s board on its avalanche of legal issues. He’s even responsible for industrial relations, and hasn’t that been going swimmingly?
Finch was covering for Qantas’ equally appalling PR chief Andrew McGinnes, who chose this week of all weeks to holiday in Tasmania. What chance does Hudson really have of repairing Qantas’ culture of arrogance surrounded by lieutenants such as these?
Goyder and Hudson were in unison on one point.
“Any suggestion we took fees for no service is just wrong,” the chairman told ABC Radio last week.
“The notion that we took fees for no service is just wrong,” Hudson told the committee on Wednesday.
She made that assertion, as Goyder did, in relation to the ghost flights Qantas is being sued over by the ACCC.
Yet, Hudson was then unable (or unwilling) to assure Senator Simon Birmingham – who brought the most effective line of questioning all day – that every customer booked on a ghost flight between May and July 2022 ultimately received an alternative seat or a refund, as opposed to a flight credit.
Flight credits issued after October 2021 still expire after 12 months.
The ACCC may have already sued over the ghost flights, but the regulator is still investigating the company’s flight credits. And remember, it was in relation to COVID-19 flight credits, not the ghost flights, that the analogy of fees for no service was first raised. That’s because the COVID-19 flight credits are in a system so unworkable as to be virtually irredeemable. That’s why the balance is falling so slowly.
Right up until the ACCC forced Qantas to cancel the expiry date on the COVID-19 credits last month, this was absolutely an attempt to confiscate more than $500 million of Qantas customers’ money. It was the mother of all fees for no service and Qantas, under Goyder’s supervision, was going for gold!
Even with the cancellation of the expiry date, this is still an attempted systemic heist unless Qantas makes the credits usable; it is merely an open-ended theft, a theft in abeyance – and one on which Qantas continues to earn tidy interest.
To use a flight credit, Qantas also forces customers into a custom booking engine, where they are often offered higher fares than in the regular booking engine.
I experienced this personally this week. A reasonable argument could be made – and hopefully the ACCC will ultimately make it – that this is another example of Qantas engaging in deceptive conduct.
Goyder and Hudson should be thankful this isn’t the US, where Qantas might’ve been done for racketeering.
Qantas lawyer Andrew Finch makes his mark
Only three weeks ago, Richard Goyder promised humility. Finch didn’t get his chairman’s memo.Joe AstonColumnistSep 28, 2023 – 5.57pm
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Wednesday evening’s appearance before a Senate inquiry by Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and new chief executive Vanessa Hudsonwas a golden opportunity squandered.
Sitting side by side, the logical discrepancy between their individual positions was dazzling.
Goyder said, “I think Alan Joyce did an excellent job as CEO” only moments after Hudson conceded that “we have let the wider Australian public down, and we understand why people are frustrated and why some have lost faith in us.”
But if Joyce did such an excellent job, why is Hudson apologising? That’s what no senator asked Goyder to explain.
Only 24 hours earlier, the Australian and International Pilots Association called on Goyder to resign. Goyder even told the inquiry that “We’ve got amazing pilots [at Qantas].” Yet no senator asked Goyder the shattering question: The people who you trust to keep your customers alive have lost confidence in your leadership. How can you possibly continue?
Goyder said, yet again, that “there’s a significant sum of money” in Joyce’s long-term bonus “that is subject to malus and clawback depending on how various things unfold in terms of Qantas’ reputation.” Yet no senator asked him to reconcile that assertion with the Qantas annual report saying that clawback is only available “in the event of serious misconduct, breach of obligations to [Qantas] or material misstatements in Qantas’ financial statements.” He would’ve frozen like Mitch McConnell.
No senator asked Goyder if reputational damage really is a clawback trigger, and given Hudson says Australians have lost faith in Qantas, why he hasn’t clawed Joyce’s bonus back already.
Goyder wasn’t even asked about letting Joyce sell $17 million of Qantas shares at the top of the market on June 1, with five months remaining in his CEO tenure and when Qantas had already received multiple compulsory information notices from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Qantas general counsel Andrew Finch. Alex Ellinghausen As it happened, the star witness of the session wasn’t Goyder or Hudson, but Qantas’ general counsel, Andrew Finch.Only three weeks ago, Goyder promised humility. Finch didn’t get his chairman’s memo. Finch’s every interjection oozed contempt for the proceedings. His animosity and semantics prompted inquiry chairwoman Bridget McKenzie to retort, “We can play LA Law all you like.”
Even Goyder and Hudson were respectful of the proceedings, no matter how cringeworthy the senators’ hectoring. Not Finch, oh no. He swaggered in, mistaking himself for Kerry Packer, not an undistinguished salaryman. Speaking as if a plum were lodged in his mouth and looking for all the world like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Finch was the personification of everything that has gone wrong at Qantas.
This is the guy advising Goyder’s board on its avalanche of legal issues. He’s even responsible for industrial relations, and hasn’t that been going swimmingly?
Finch was covering for Qantas’ equally appalling PR chief Andrew McGinnes, who chose this week of all weeks to holiday in Tasmania. What chance does Hudson really have of repairing Qantas’ culture of arrogance surrounded by lieutenants such as these?
Goyder and Hudson were in unison on one point.
“Any suggestion we took fees for no service is just wrong,” the chairman told ABC Radio last week.
“The notion that we took fees for no service is just wrong,” Hudson told the committee on Wednesday.
She made that assertion, as Goyder did, in relation to the ghost flights Qantas is being sued over by the ACCC.
Yet, Hudson was then unable (or unwilling) to assure Senator Simon Birmingham – who brought the most effective line of questioning all day – that every customer booked on a ghost flight between May and July 2022 ultimately received an alternative seat or a refund, as opposed to a flight credit.
Flight credits issued after October 2021 still expire after 12 months.
The ACCC may have already sued over the ghost flights, but the regulator is still investigating the company’s flight credits. And remember, it was in relation to COVID-19 flight credits, not the ghost flights, that the analogy of fees for no service was first raised. That’s because the COVID-19 flight credits are in a system so unworkable as to be virtually irredeemable. That’s why the balance is falling so slowly.
Right up until the ACCC forced Qantas to cancel the expiry date on the COVID-19 credits last month, this was absolutely an attempt to confiscate more than $500 million of Qantas customers’ money. It was the mother of all fees for no service and Qantas, under Goyder’s supervision, was going for gold!
Even with the cancellation of the expiry date, this is still an attempted systemic heist unless Qantas makes the credits usable; it is merely an open-ended theft, a theft in abeyance – and one on which Qantas continues to earn tidy interest.
To use a flight credit, Qantas also forces customers into a custom booking engine, where they are often offered higher fares than in the regular booking engine.
I experienced this personally this week. A reasonable argument could be made – and hopefully the ACCC will ultimately make it – that this is another example of Qantas engaging in deceptive conduct.
Goyder and Hudson should be thankful this isn’t the US, where Qantas might’ve been done for racketeering.
Some have suggested it is unlikely a decision based on a moral principle would really influence the decision of a government to deny an international carrier access to the market. But then I remembered many years ago, SQ was desperate to fly the Pacific, Aus to USA, and had lobbied hard for years. But the final decision to deny them access was made just 2 weeks after the execution of Van Nguyen. Although it was denied it was widely though the route decision was linked to the execution:
Singapore angry at air route denial
Singapore angry at air route denial
I agree, I actually remember JH being visibly upset. It was quite tangible to anyone who had some EQ that he was pissed off!
A good summary on Hot Copper by CbrMaroon on yesterday's performance by the Three Stooges at the Senate Inquiry:
Chairman - no interest in anyone or other QAN parties, except for saving his overly remunerated and underperforming role. Persistently referred to some meeting he convened with several hand chosen major holders, of course nothing for the retail holder. Nothing will change for the better at QAN as long as he is Chairman.
CEO - a thoroughly unconvincing performance at best, Sir Humphrey Appleby (Yes Minster) would be impressed with her inability to address the questioning from all Senators.
Who was that obnoxious in house QAN lawyer, reminds of the then NAB Chairman (Ken Henry) type performance at the last Banking RC. Complete lack of self-awareness, merely added to the perception of QAN culture of self-indulgence and self-entitlement.
Chairman - no interest in anyone or other QAN parties, except for saving his overly remunerated and underperforming role. Persistently referred to some meeting he convened with several hand chosen major holders, of course nothing for the retail holder. Nothing will change for the better at QAN as long as he is Chairman.
CEO - a thoroughly unconvincing performance at best, Sir Humphrey Appleby (Yes Minster) would be impressed with her inability to address the questioning from all Senators.
Who was that obnoxious in house QAN lawyer, reminds of the then NAB Chairman (Ken Henry) type performance at the last Banking RC. Complete lack of self-awareness, merely added to the perception of QAN culture of self-indulgence and self-entitlement.
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Well it's just not Qantas suffering at the moment. Another company, Woodside, is being accused of market manipulation, price gouging, hoarding gas supplies, skirting policy.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-...ices/102906210
I wonder what sort of board governance would allow such action to take place. Who would oversee this type of poor corporate behaviour? Oh wait....?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-...ices/102906210
I wonder what sort of board governance would allow such action to take place. Who would oversee this type of poor corporate behaviour? Oh wait....?
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Well it's just not Qantas suffering at the moment. Another company, Woodside, is being accused of market manipulation, price gouging, hoarding gas supplies, skirting policy.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-...ices/102906210
I wonder what sort of board governance would allow such action to take place. Who would oversee this type of poor corporate behaviour? Oh wait....?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-...ices/102906210
I wonder what sort of board governance would allow such action to take place. Who would oversee this type of poor corporate behaviour? Oh wait....?
I'm adding to the multi, originally: 1: Joyce won't lose a cent of bonus. 2: Joyce will not face any penalty or jail time for any court actions Qantas face. 3: Bonus add, Joyce will not face any action whatsoever for avoiding senate estimates. 1 & 2 was offering a very generous $1.02 1, 2 & 3 now at $1.03. Guilty of either 1, 2 or 3 separately and you only need one to get up, $10.35.
What’s the price on any member of the Coalition or Labor renouncing their Qantas Chairmans Lounge membership? I’m guessing around $1.01?
None of them will, it’s do as I say not as I do and never forget if politicians didn’t have double standards they would have no standards.
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