Qantas Chairman’s Lounge will not go PC and change its name

Qantas says its exclusive lounge won’t change its name despite the airline telling staff to stop using “gender-inappropriate” terms like “chairman”.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce with a bottle of gin at the opening of the airline’s lounge at Heathrow Airport last December.

Qantas may have issued politically correct instructions to its staff not to use “gender-inappropriate” terms such as “guys” or “dad” or “chairman”, but the airline’s chief executive Alan Joyce has no plans to rename what amounts to his own private airport club, the Chairman’s Lounge.

Qantas has distributed a document to its employees prepared by the Diversity Council Australia called “Words at Work”, which campaigns for “building inclusion through the power of language.”

DCA’s campaign document says: “Imagine a world in which sexist language was replaced by racist language. Instead of saying ‘chairman’ or ‘you guys’, people would use ‘chairwhite’ and ‘you whiteys’.’’

“If we cringe at ‘you whiteys’ and would protest such terms, why don’t we work as hard at changing ‘you guys’.”

DCA chief executive Lisa Annese is particularly insistent that the word “chairman” be banned from all Australian workplaces.

“What we’re saying is if you want a workplace where people feel valued, respected and included, it’s better to be using the word chairperson, rather than chairman, especially if the chair is a female,” Ms Annese told The Australian.

But the semi-secret Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, which is a distinct and more exclusive airport lounge operating in most big Australian airports, will not change its name, according to Qantas spokesman Stephen Moynihan.

According to a story in Fairfax Media on the Chairman’s Lounge by travel writer Kylie McLaughlin, “lounges are so exclusive, the only way you can get a membership is through an invitation from Qantas’ CEO, Alan Joyce.”

“But how you get that invitation remains a complete mystery. There’s no membership fees and you cannot apply. There’s no signage to indicate where the lounge may be in the airport.”

Mr Moynihan was keen to maintain the mystery of the Chairman’s Lounge.

“It’s a range above the Qantas Club,” Mr Moynihan said. “There has always been a lot of speculation about the Chairman’s Lounge, it’s not something we really talk about.”

​​But Mr Moynihan stated: “No, we won’t be renaming the Chairman’s Lounge.

“The fact that we’re not changing it shows we don’t view those (DCA) materials as a set of rules. It was simply a discussion about language.”