27th February Big Qantas announcement

[Moody]

... but Mark Latham is simply saying that Alan Joyce has failed to deliver "He should resign on results" and should be removed so that someone who can make the changes has some clear air and oxygen (to do the changes or come up with different changes), as opposed to Jeff Kennett, whom thinks that Alan Joyce is the guy to do it.

Alan Joyce lost me (and a good many others I presume) when he shut-down Qantas on a nigh hysterical whim. Long past time for him to go ...

 

[QF WP]

Will be interesting to see how the political side plays out - IMHO, majority Australian ownership of QF is not a pre-requisite. Having QF Management formulate a plan to have a profitable airline will make all shareholders (who are taking the financial risk) happy. Whether that involves AJ going forward to drive the changes....I'm ambivalent.

Interesting debate between Jeff and Mark. Bringing into question the presenters business abilities was inappropriate, they are only there to pose questions to the speakers. Jeff won on points, but only just.

 

[Danger]

So what was the point of all that? Just goes to the Senate and will be blocked anyway, unless something surprising or unexpected happens in the Senate it will just be blocked by the ALP, Greens and others in the Senate and the Government will simply add it to the list of things blocked in the senate. So the ALP opposition will continue to argue that the government is doing nothing and the government will reply that their legislation is blocked in the senate. Am I right in the assumption that as long as the ALP and Greens oppose changes to the QF Act then whatever the Coalition/Xenephon/Madigan say is irrelevant?

It's all political and you've really summed it up quite well.

As the numbers stand in the current Senate, you are correct: even with the support of Xenophon and Madigan the Bill would not pass. The Greens and ALP combined hold 40 seats.

 

[QF WP]

I'm sure the men in the dark rooms have mapped out all the permutations and actions required by the Government (and the Opposition likewise). I'm not about to waste energy on trying to look at all the "what if" scenarios - they're paid to do that, I'm not .

 

[Danger]

The Bill has now been referred to the Senate Economics committee for inquiry and report by 24 March.

If anyone wants to be a witness at any potential hearing, let me know; I'll put in a good word!

 

[JohnPhelan]

Alan Joyce lost me (and a good many others I presume) when he shut-down Qantas on a nigh hysterical whim. ...

Sorry but that's politically-motivated rubbish. He took decisive action to end a protracted union campaign of illegal wild cat strikes. And it worked. He was prepared to bear short-term pain for medium to long term gain - giving his customers certainty that their flights wouldn't be cancelled at the last minute.

I didn't have a lot of time for him before that action, but my level of respect for him soared that day. He's made quite a few blunders, but this was not one of them.

 

[Fruitcake]

Alan Joyce lost me (and a good many others I presume) when he shut-down Qantas on a nigh hysterical whim. Long past time for him to go ...

At least twenty people in my office were starting to book their first ever DJ/VA flights in the leadup to that grounding. Within a couple of days of QF getting back the air, most of those were cancelled and QF bookings were made instead. A lot of colleagues were carrying matched Velocity status at the time as well.

 

[eastwest101]

Just heard on ABC Radio that the Senate Inquiry will be calling Alan Joyce in for questioning, among others. Not really what Alan Joyce had in mind when he originally called for govenment assistance, instead he has got no assistance, has not got rid of the QF Sales Act restrictions yet and has got a new political circus and PR headache without any of the benefits of government support...

Will be interesting to see if Alan Joyce even attends, and how he will deal with the variety of questions. Will depend on the makeup of the committee and whether Clifford/Joyce/Wirth/Xenephon/Albanese/Truss etc etc have to answer questions or want to make statements. Could end up keeping a lot of journalists employed anyway!

 

[petercr]

Will he (AJ) be prepared to fly on a B717 to get to our nation's capital ??

 

[smit0847]

How do QF get rid of the lower level staff on the ridiculously expensive EBAs though? Offer them redundancies? Surely these should be the first staff to go - if you have one cabin crew member thats been there for 20 years earning $xx per hour and another cabin crew member thats been there for 5 years earning 30% less then surely you get rid of the expensive staff and keep the cheaper ones?

There will be howls of protests from the staff that they can no longer go to Europe in J several times a year for next to nothing but what do they expect when they're working for an company thats losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year and they're 'on a pretty good wicket'?

 

[Danger]

Just heard on ABC Radio that the Senate Inquiry will be calling Alan Joyce in for questioning, among others. Not really what Alan Joyce had in mind when he originally called for govenment assistance, instead he has got no assistance, has not got rid of the QF Sales Act restrictions yet and has got a new political circus and PR headache without any of the benefits of government support...

Will be interesting to see if Alan Joyce even attends, and how he will deal with the variety of questions. Will depend on the makeup of the committee and whether Clifford/Joyce/Wirth/Xenephon/Albanese/Truss etc etc have to answer questions or want to make statements. Could end up keeping a lot of journalists employed anyway!

The government has the numbers on the Econonics (Legislation) committee. Although any senator can attend, the full, voting members are Senators Bushby, Eggleston and Williams (coalition), Senators Pratt and Bishop (Labor) and Xenophon.

There will be no appearance made by Truss or Albanese and almost certainly not by any parliamentarian.

Joyce can be subpoenaed to appear before the committee, defiance of which is considered contempt of the Senate. That said, it is (a) unlikely Joyce would not appear if asked and (b) that he would actually be subpoenaed in the first place.

 

[amaroo]

Just heard on ABC Radio that the Senate Inquiry will be calling Alan Joyce in for questioning, among others. Not really what Alan Joyce had in mind when he originally called for govenment assistance, instead he has got no assistance, has not got rid of the QF Sales Act restrictions yet and has got a new political circus and PR headache without any of the benefits of government support...

Will be interesting to see if Alan Joyce even attends, and how he will deal with the variety of questions. Will depend on the makeup of the committee and whether Clifford/Joyce/Wirth/Xenephon/Albanese/Truss etc etc have to answer questions or want to make statements. Could end up keeping a lot of journalists employed anyway!

It will be as useless as the last Senate Inquiry Qantas CEO grilled in Senate inquiry - YouTube

Wonder if it will be Ground Hog Day and the chair of the committee will be an ex-TWU organiser ?

 

[Danger]

It will be as useless as the last Senate Inquiry Qantas CEO grilled in Senate inquiry - YouTube

Wonder if it will be Ground Hog Day and the chair of the committee will be an ex-TWU organiser ?

The chair will be Senator David Bushby, Liberal from Tasmania, a lawyer with economics and law degrees.

 

[amaroo]

The chair will be Senator David Bushby, Liberal from Tasmania, a lawyer with economics and law degrees.

Slight improvement on the last one

 

[Moody]

Sorry but that's politically-motivated rubbish. He took decisive action to end a protracted union campaign of illegal wild cat strikes. And it worked. He was prepared to bear short-term pain for medium to long term gain - giving his customers certainty that their flights wouldn't be cancelled at the last minute.

I didn't have a lot of time for him before that action, but my level of respect for him soared that day. He's made quite a few blunders, but this was not one of them.

Sorry but that's logically-flawed excrement. He spat the dummy at the first sign of legally protected action. And it failed. He was prepared to cost Qantas tens of millions of dollars per day in the short term and it's reputation in the long term - giving his customers incentive to try another airline that won't close it's doors at any minute.

I didn't have an opinion of him before he cracked it, but my respect for him went to zero that day. He's made quite a few blunders [ed - see what I did there], and this was the biggest.

 

[serfty]

... He spat the dummy at the first sign of legally protected action. ...

The first sign? ... hmmm ... it had been going on for months with approx 600 flights cancelled and 6 aircraft grounded due to the IA of TWU/ALAEA and AIPA. The day before, two unions declared their intention to escalate actions and over an extended period. The infamous "to bake Qantas slowly" was enunciated.

... And it failed. ...

Did it? Qantas had been losing $15M per week directly due to IA in the period leading up to the grounding.

 

[mannej]

Moody, a google search will quite easily show that perhaps your memory is a tad hazy on the topic.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

Alan Joyce lost me (and a good many others I presume) when he shut-down Qantas on a nigh hysterical whim. Long past time for him to go ...

It actually took balls and solved a long running industrial dispute, but the interpretation usually lies with your political persuasion.

 

[SQ421]

Sorry but that's politically-motivated rubbish. He took decisive action to end a protracted union campaign of illegal wild cat strikes. And it worked. He was prepared to bear short-term pain for medium to long term gain - giving his customers certainty that their flights wouldn't be cancelled at the last minute.

I didn't have a lot of time for him before that action, but my level of respect for him soared that day. He's made quite a few blunders, but this was not one of them.

He used the protections of the same law as the unions to bring the industrial action to a head. Fair enough. The long term gain remains to be seen. And in face of increasing costs, AJ's jonestown like obsession with the 65% strategy in face of higher operating costs than VA has got to be responsible much of the pain QF finds itself in.

AJ has to go, if not for everything that has happened between the grounding and this week, then certainly for citing CEO's of two successful low cost carriers in defense of his strategy.

 

[JohnK]

And the election thread has been resurrected....