Business ‘be bold’ to combat coronavirus economic crisis, says Qantas chairman Richard Goyder

Government must encourage business to invest post-virus with tax or investment allowances, says Qantas chair.

Richard Goyder, Woodside chairman. Picture: Ross Swanborough

The time for reopening the Australian economy has come, but reviving the economy will require business to be “bold” and government encouragement to induce private investment, says Richard Goyder, the chairman of Qantas.

Labelling the preservation of employment as his top priority, Mr Goyder - who is also the chairman of Woodside Petroleum and the AFL Commission - called on the country to begin redirecting its energies from combating the virus to rebuilding the economy and a “brighter future”.

“What worries me most is young people looking into a future where their prospects of gainful employment aren’t great. Clearly infrastructure and building productive infrastructure is a great way of getting economic activity going and getting those productivity improvements,” Mr Goyder said.

“But as the community has done its bit, business has to do its bit now. Business has to be a little bit bold in getting ahead of the curve of some investments.”

Speaking on Radio National on Wednesday, Mr Goyder highlighted the struggles of Woodside as an example of the difficult investment environment, and said the government would need to provide encouragement - either in the form of tax or investment allowances - in order for businesses to invest again.

“Where Woodside was six months ago, looking at tens of billions of investment in new LNG facilities, it’s now a time where businesses are looking at preserving, protecting balance sheets, and hunkering down. Somehow there’s going to have to be some incentives as well,” he said.

Despite fears that reopening the economy too quickly could result in a spike in reinfection, as was recently seen in Singapore, Mr Goyder said that reopening the economy was crucial to preserving jobs and getting investment going again.

“There’s risks in everything. I think government and medical staff have done an amazing job in getting us to where we are. The risk of not opening up is as high as the risk of opening up,” he said.

“I think we know a lot more about the virus now, we know more about treatment, we know about how to track it. Obviously, the app will help.”

While eager to support the country’s suffering tourism sector, Mr Goyder wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics about when Qantas planes would begin flying again. However, he said the company had a “variety of scenarios” and reassured travellers that flying would be safe once it resumed.

“No passenger-to-passenger, or passenger-to-crew transmission on our flights. The air filtration systems are very impressive on aircraft, and much different to cruise ships. We need to work with the government to give our passengers assurance they are safe on planes and I’m sure we can do that,” he said.