AFR's Joe Aston goes BAM!

I'm about 4 hours into the audiobook now and by far the most ridiculous part of the story (not that it's new, but it's still jarring to hear) so far has been the part where McCormack gave Rex $62m for them to do as they see fit. The criticism around flight credits when the government grounded flights is pretty one-eyed, there were a ton of airlines who handled it the same way including VA but it's painted as being a distinctly Qantas-inspired scheme, the only other thing of interest that I've heard so far is around the BGH negotiations with VA which is genuinely interesting stuff.

I do hope it gets juicier from here, though. It's been a bit ho hum. The commentary here had led me to believe there would be a lot of info about what was happening inside the airline and I've heard very little that we didn't already know so far.

Can I also say that, and I'll admit I've taken a pretty skeptical lens to this given what I have percieved as a fair bit of grandstanding, Joe starting out the book by first declaring that he's a member of the beyond "club" and then launching into a description of the chairman's lounge as being a cloak and dagger courtship of favour seemed really off to me. It's on the level of MPs giving Albo stick because they too benefit from upgrades but had to call a lowly call centre to get them and that somehow makes their actions much more virtuous.

It's great that he's being transparent and all but just declaring that he's ex Lib, ex Qantas, makes a ton of money off his very popular Rear Window articles, has hooked up plenty of upgrades in the past, is part of another airlines lobbying lounge program and so on doesn't mean these are not all elements of who he is and where his viewpoint originates, it just shields him from criticism had he not disclosed them.
 
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However, i think the point being made is there are more stories to be explored in the book which cast further light on the relationship between QF and Govt which prima facie also does not protect the public interest.

That may be the case but this thread is just representing the wider community in what’s most interesting to discuss.
 

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