Jordan Peterson smashes Qantas again after Alan Joyce resignation

Controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson has waded into the Welcome to Country debate again after Alan Joyce’s Qantas departure.

Jordan Peterson has taken aim at Qantas again following the resignation of CEO Alan Joyce.

The controversial Canadian psychologist and internet personality previously criticised the airline for playing an Aboriginal Acknowledgement of Country on a flight he was on.

Peterson retweeted a segment of an article by Rita Panahi, a columnist for the Herald Sun, which criticised Joyce’s political stances while in the role.

“Good riddance to the man who transformed Qantas from the ‘spirit of Australia’ into an arrogant, underperforming, and overcharging activist airline,” Panahi wrote on X.

Peterson — who has previously criticised the airline over its Welcome To Country message on flights — then shared the post and wrote: “The worst propaganda of any airline anywhere. Although I haven’t flown in China Or North Korea. Do they have planes in North Korea?”.

Peterson has made a global name for himself as a staunch opponent of political correctness, criticising the modern left-wing movement including dozens of prominent world leaders.

In November 2022, Peterson, turned his gaze to Australia, claiming the Welcome To Country message was “propaganda” and said he’d prefer political messages weren’t delivered by a “corporate behemoth”.

“I could really do without the land acknowledgment propaganda delivered to me by a corporate behemoth @Qantas,” he tweeted at the time.

“I‘m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. Stick to (1) flying and (2) making money. I don’t want or need moral lessons from you or any other corporation.”

Jordan Peterson has taken aim at Qantas again following the resignation of CEO Alan Joyce.

Qantas said it is committed to reconciliation and says it is striving to build a “shared national identity”.

“We want to foster a shared national identity where Australians take pride in our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and contemporary cultures,” Qantas said in an online statement.

“This is critical to our reconciliation vision of shared national identity, grounded in social and cultural inclusion.

“We acknowledge the continued systemic challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“As custodians of this ancient land, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples make up 3 per cent of our population. Yet, through entrenched inequality, they are disproportionately overrepresented in every area of disadvantage.”

Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi said Joyce turned Qantas into an ‘arrogant, underperforming, and overcharging activist airline’.

Welcome To Country ceremonies have become a hot topic in Australia, with some Indigenous activists claiming it has lost its “cultural meaning” because they’ve become too mainstream.

Kiescha Haines-Jamieson, from Western Australia, has built up a huge following on TikTok by discussing her opposition to the Voice to Parliament.

The No campaigner agreed with one of her followers who said they felt Welcome to Country ceremonies had started to become “tokenistic” in their workplace.

The activist replied that she felt the “same,” before elaborating that the ceremony had lost its meaning because it had become so common.

Ms Haines-Jamieson claims that the way it is used now isn’t as helpful as you might believe.

“It was never intended for opening football games or corporate or social events. It was actually a practice used for ensuring permission and safe passage to and through tribal boundaries. Now, it’s been so mainstream it’s made people be apathetic,” she claimed.

Ms Haines-Jamieson went on to explain that “it’s losing its special purpose,” and she actually felt it was working against Indigenous people and that was impacting all of Australia.

“It is making people apathetic towards us which we don’t want,” she said.