Lip service as apology the latest thing to go corporate

Sorry may seem to be the hardest word, but saying it is a lot easier for Optus and Jetstar than doing something about it, argues Joe Hildebrand.

The art of the public apology used to be such a simple affair: Someone would get offended by something said by, say, Kyle Sandilands or Eddie McGuire – or, back in the good old days, me – and demand they say sorry.

Then, when the person did say sorry, the people who demanded the apology would say that wasn’t enough and demand that the person be fired, cancelled, deplatformed, boycotted or strung up in the town square.

It was a more innocent age.

These days, however, the apology has done what everything else has – it has gone corporate.

And so companies that are falling over themselves to promote their woke or touchy-feely credentials will apologise profusely at the drop of a hat in an effort to:

a) Promote their woke or touchy-feely credentials; and

b) Avoid being be fired, cancelled, deplatformed, boycotted or strung up in the town square.

Thus we’ve seen Optus say sorry for Australia’s biggest data breach, the passport office say sorry for not giving people their passports, and Jetstar say sorry for people being stranded in Hawaii.

Jetstar said sorry for people being stranded in Hawaii, but really didn’t do anything about it. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Luis Enrique Ascui

The only catch is they haven’t really done anything about it. While Optus was taking out full-page prostrating ads, it was refusing to co-operate with the federal government. While the passport office said sorry for its processing delays, it is about to face the mother of all challenges, replacing those of Optus customers. And while Jetstar said sorry for its flight cancellations, it is still … well, Jetstar.

As my mother always said, there’s no point saying sorry if you just keep doing it.

In the meantime, perhaps, we are coming full circle. A disability advocate yesterday accused Kyle Sandilands of using “ableist” language during one of his trademark rants and demanded action be taken against him by radio company ARN.

Personally, I would rather see action be taken by companies responsible for a far more dangerous and intimate communications violation, or companies responsible for physically separating people from their loved ones.

Sorry, but that’s just how I feel.