Qantas needs to fasten its seatbelt as senate inquiry meets
Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and chairman Richard Goyder are expected to be top of the list of people the senate aviation inquiry will decide it wants to summon when it first meets on Thursday.
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Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and chairman Richard Goyder are expected to be top of the list of people the senate aviation inquiry will decide it wants to summon when it meets for the first time on Thursday.
Pressure continues to mount on the flying kangaroo with the Transport Workers Union calling for Mr Goyder and the rest of the board to be cleaned out after the High Court on Wednesday ruled Qantas’s sacking of almost 1700 ground workers was illegal.
“The Joyce regime has been toppled but the airline cannot achieve the reset necessary for its survival under the same board that resided over the largest case of illegal sackings in Australian corporate history,” TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said.
“Richard Goyder cannot make it through another day as chair.”
Katter’s Australian Party MP Bob Katter also told Sky News he would move to hold an inquiry into “the slithering Sydney suits” on the Qantas board.
The High Court found Qantas acted illegally by sacking close to 1700 workers in 2021 in order to prevent industrial action when negotiations for a new enterprise agreement began.
The airline now has to pay the union’s legal costs, a hefty fine and is likely to be ordered to compensate the workers. The total bill could be in excess of $200 million.
In a statement Qantas issued an unprecedented apology to its former staff.
“We deeply regret the personal impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected and we sincerely apologise for that,” it said.
Former TWU official and fierce Qantas critic Labor senator Tony Sheldon also called on the senate inquiry to hold the Qantas board to account.
“Qantas Chair Richard Goyder’s position is utterly untenable,” he said.
“The Senate Inquiry must ensure the Qantas Board and Executive are held fully accountable for what is the largest act of illegal industrial activity in this country’s history.”
The High Court decision comes after Mr Joyce was forced to bring forward his retirement in the wake of revelations that Qantas owed customers $170 million more than it originally admitted and The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued it for selling almost 10,000 tickets to ghost flights that had already been cancelled.
The chair of the senate inquiry, Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie, said the inquiry would meet on Thursday to draw up a list of who it would summon.
Among the questions it wants answered is why the Labor government banned extra flights by Qantas rival Qatar Airways that would have helped bring down the price of airfares.
“To date the Albanese government has given nine different and sometimes conflicting reasons including that it was to reduce carbon emissions,” she said. “It’s all too cosy.
“The only one getting screwed are the Australian people who are getting price gouged on plane tickets and have been blocked from cheaper alternatives.”
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Originally published as Qantas needs to fasten its seatbelt as senate inquiry meets
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