ABC 4 Corners on Qantas - Monday 5 September

[Anna]

On Monday 5 September, ABC's 4 Corners program will be about Qantas.

Flight Risk: The inside story of the chaos at Qantas

Until recently Qantas had a reputation envied by airlines all over the world. But now the Spirit of Australia is in damage control, beset by customer complaints and a demoralised workforce. On Monday Four Corners reports the inside story of the decline of Qantas. Reporter Stephen Long has spoken...

www.abc.net.au

 

[jakeseven7]

Wonder if it will be as light weight as the ‘investigation’ into the Virgin collapse and the behaviour of their senior management. That was A current affair level reporting.

Bring on the wine !

 

[CMA222]

At least the ABC is prepared to take the topic on. The commercial channels are too concerned that the advertising revenue and contra deals they get will be reduced or eliminated in retaliation. Of course, QF would never do that, they would blame it on the channels not being "match fit" in handling interactions with the airline !

 

[coriander]

I think that by the time the scripts have been through the legal department and all contentious items redacted it's been emasculated down to a safe level.

 

[cove]

Commercial TV stations won’t bite the hand that feeds them. It is advertising money first.
Qantas is broken and we need change or many will not be returning.
Last night I had a call about a $500 bag getting damaged beyond repair and flights getting cancelled on a Friday night. So many long term users are very upset and want the current CEO sacked.

 

[SydneySwan]

I am in 1A on Monday night for this.

The New Daily also took a look at Qantas today;

QantasKeeper: Was Australia’s largest pandemic bailout a ripoff?

The 'Spirit of Australia' was deemed too big to fail during the pandemic, but the public isn’t sharing in the spoils of its stunning recovery.

thenewdaily.com.au

 

[ellen10]

I will be tuning in to see what they have to say.

Yes husband reads the new daily and showed me the article.

 

[yaksha98]

Tonight's Four Corners story on Qantas

Qantas staff fear the airline's stellar safety reputation is at risk as pressure from management mounts - ABC News

amp.abc.net.au

 

[RooFlyer]

A bit of a preview: We spoke to dozens of current and former Qantas staff, this is what they say is wrong at the airline

 

[Happy Dude]

Wonder if it will be as light weight as the ‘investigation’ into the Virgin collapse and the behaviour of their senior management. That was A current affair level reporting.

Bring on the wine !

I wonder this too. If recent times are anything to go by, it'll be:

• 20mins of disgruntled passengers, all of whom were on the trip of a lifetime, saved for years, have had their mental health affected, life ruined, etc,
• 10mins of various ground staff saying how terrible conditions are causing mental health issues.
• 10mins will be AJ saying how difficult these times are due to everything except QF and how they've apologised and are doing everything to get back the public's trust.

 

[RooFlyer]

I wonder this too. If recent times are anything to go by, it'll be:

• 20mins of disgruntled passengers, all of whom were on the trip of a lifetime, saved for years, have had their mental health affected, life ruined, etc,
• 10mins of various ground staff saying how terrible conditions are causing mental health issues.
• 10mins will be AJ saying how difficult these times are due to everything except QF and how they've apologised and are doing everything to get back the public's trust.

Maybe. But by the look of the on-line article linked to above, there will be a few pilots and senior engineers worrying about work over-load and impact on flying safety.

Eg: Qantas reported as agreeing that engineers are down 35% pre-covid, but that's OK because no B747s and less overseas flying.

 

[jb747]

Whilst not normally a fan of these shows, I know a couple of the people mentioned in the article, and they’re definitely from the sensible end of pool.

 

[Mattg]

I wonder this too. If recent times are anything to go by, it'll be:

• 20mins of disgruntled passengers, all of whom were on the trip of a lifetime, saved for years, have had their mental health affected, life ruined, etc,
• 10mins of various ground staff saying how terrible conditions are causing mental health issues.
• 10mins will be AJ saying how difficult these times are due to everything except QF and how they've apologised and are doing everything to get back the public's trust.

Alan Joyce apparently did not agree to be interviewed for the Four Corners episode.

This was discussed on RN Breakfast this morning. According to the journalist who put together the Four Corners story, Alan Joyce would not agree to be interviewed unless it was live-to-air or Four Corners agreed to broadcast an unedited interview in full as part of the episode. This is not how Four Corners works, but they agreed to publish the full interview on their website. AJ and Qantas refused.

Apparently, Four Corners did ask AJ a few questions at the recent investor results day, but Qantas didn't like this very much and the journalist was escorted from the building.

 

[Happy Dude]

Alan Joyce apparently did not agree to be interviewed for the Four Corners episode.

This was discussed on RN Breakfast this morning. According to the journalist who put together the Four Corners story, Alan Joyce would not agree to be interviewed unless it was live-to-air or Four Corners agreed to broadcast an unedited interview in full as part of the episode. This is not how Four Corners works, but they agreed to publish the full interview on their website. AJ and Qantas refused.

Apparently, Four Corners did ask AJ a few questions at the recent investor results day, but Qantas didn't like this very much and the journalist was escorted from the building.

The promo I saw yesterday gave me the impression that AJ was being interviewed as part of the story. No doubt the behaviour as you've described will get some airtime. But recently, the four corners style has included less journalism and more emotional history of the "victim". I'm thinking specifically of the Greywolf mining episode.

 

[SydneySwan]

I am still waiting for my pre-departure bubbles! Service a bit slow tonight.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Don’t put anything valuable in checked baggage.

 

[SydneySwan]

Don’t check baggage.

Corrected it for you!

 

[yohy?!]

A very in-depth and interesting program.

"Death by a thousand cuts" was the theme.

I thought it was well done how they included the 2011 strike-breaking, underlining how this has lead to culture over the last decade of redundancies, outsourcing and undermining of conditions across engineering, ground and aircrew.

Joyce has been busy, now it's a question of safety vs profits.

 

[Melburnian1]

The former pilot Keith Marriott (if I have his name correct) seemed quite measured and impressive.

Some of the others interviewed made less telling points.

We know why it has to be done but watching 'actors' or 'ghosts' deliver monologues doesn't captivate.

The program was somewhat wrecked by the prepublicity, so I perceived I wasn't seeing much in addition.

The central message seemed to be 'lots of actions are defensible, but put them all together and eventually (at some indeterminate future date) safety "may" be badly compromised, with negative results'.

Whether the policy of engaging cabin crew on widely different rates (QCCA,, legacy staff, UK, Kiwis) ever alters may be unlikely, but this was an interesting question posed by the journalist who was escorted out by security. Joyce clearly hated that question and looked like a kangaroo in a freight train's headlights when answering. Look at his body language: deep down, he knows it's wrong but in reply used a red herring about Q400s v larger planes, which wasn't the question.

The (former 16 year?) stereotypical flight attendant made the quote of the night quoting 'Animal Farm' and naming George Orwell.

Overall there were too many union reps interviewed. I'd have liked to see more former staff featured who were not union delegates.

Interestingly, the question of QF's failure to pay refunds and how it landed in trouble with the ACCC wasn't featured in the program. Yet this has been a big community issue.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Yeah, I would have liked to see more about what QF is doing to its customers, particularly the call centre debacle.