It’s not just Qantas customers and shareholders who will be left counting the cost of the airline’s descent into scandal. The disenchantment with the company across Canberra and the community is yet another hit to the corporate sector’s political and social capital, threatening to derail the business lobby’s calls for economic reform at exactly the wrong time.

Just three years on from the start of the pandemic, the Team Australia partnership between business and government has fallen apart under the pressure of a cost-of-living crisis, stalled productivity growth and Labor governments Australia-wide intent on tapping business to pay down ballooning debt piles. But it is misconduct that has put some of Australia’s biggest companies on the front page – and on the lips of politicians.