Qantas board recruit’s night behind bars; ABC’s Anderson soft on Stan’s conduct

Doug Parker when he was American Airlines chief, with Qantas boss Alan Joyce in 2015. Picture: AAP

Corporate villain Qantas spruced up its board in May by recruiting a director with ample experience in an area of public life that could soon prove useful – dealing with a criminal prosecution!

No, no, the airline’s troubles are unlikely to go that far, but who knows where the trajectory of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s action against Qantas in the federal court may ultimately wind up.

Doug Parker was formerly the CEO and chairman of American Airlines. He joined the Qantas board to replace outgoing director Michael L’Estrange, who will doff his cap in November at the AGM.

Qantas chair Richard Goyder feted Parker’s recruitment and made sure to mention that he would maintain “the depth and breadth of experience” at Qantas as the group entered “the next phase in its history”.

Doubtful that Goyder predicted the next phase would look so bleak, or include such a swift and ruthless degradation of the company’s public image. Should the moment come, Parker, at least, knows how to deliver a full-throated mea culpa, as he did in 2007 after a drink-driving episode while serving as chief of US Airways.

No mention of that in Goyder’s celebratory remarks, for obvious reasons. His newest board member was sentenced to one night in jail for drunk driving, having been pulled up mere hours after US Airways lost a bid to acquire Delta Air Lines. Parker was rather soused, too, clocking a blood-alcohol reading of 0.096 after leaving an Arizona golf tournament, getting pinged on the way for driving 25mph (40km/h) over the speed limit.

At the time, Parker’s statement put the episode down to “a mistake” and assured everyone this was “not a trend”, although it was later reported he’d been convicted of the same offence twice previously in his 20s.

“I will ­accept the consequences of my actions and I will ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” he said in the same statement.

Qantas told Margin Call it was well aware of Parker’s history on the sauce before appointing him. All in the past, apparently.

“Doug was well known to the Qantas board as the longtime CEO of American Airlines,” a spokesman said. “We are pleased to have someone of his skills and experience on the board.”

‘Internal matter’

ABC managing director David Anderson proved himself an invertebrate figure during his interview with Virginia Trioli on Thursday morning. Of course Anderson thinks an article published in The Australian this week about broadcaster Stan Grant wasn’t “in the public interest”. He said: “Nor do I think it should be something that everyone is talking about. It’s an internal matter and needs to be dealt with as such.”

Grant’s conduct, which he’s admitted to on social media (“I should have behaved better,” he said), allegedly involved the public humiliation of a senior female colleague in front of numerous staff in the ABC’s Ultimo foyer.

Such was the ferocity of this incident several witnesses raised it for attention with ABC management.

ABC managing director David Anderson’s response to the Grant issue was insipid. Picture: Martin Ollman

We know that management not only took no meaningful action against Grant, it also abrogated a duty to investigate the matter thoroughly and support the other employee concerned. Unlike Grant, they aren’t able to jump on LinkedIn, or call The Guardian, and tell their side of this sorry tale.

It’s a hopeless outcome, demanding review, and yet Anderson, who presided over this failure, still finds himself puzzled at why any of this might be in the public interest to examine.

 

Beast of a release

Not exactly what you’d expect from the fiancee of one of Australia’s richest men, but then nothing about Alex Waislitz and Rebekah Behbahani has ever been safe or predictable. Now dubbing herself Behani, she’s been carving out a career as an international musician for some time, this week releasing a single, Pretty Beast, a follow-up to her previous track,

Comfortable, in collaboration with American singer/songwriter Ne-Yo.

Rebekah Behbahani, now calling herself Behani, has a new single out called Pretty Beast.

The lyrics are really something, too. “Lately I been feeling something like a pretty beast,” it goes. “All these boys around me lookin’ like something to eat, see this sexy kind of dangerous with caution do proceed, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya I’m a f..king pretty beast.”

Maybe she’ll sing at one of the next Thorney fund AGMs?

Betting on move

The bar is getting very low on measuring CEO tenures at Andrew Forrest’s collection of corporate entities. One of the longest-serving chiefs is John Hartman, of Tattarang, and he’s only been in that job for a year! (That said, he spent a decade there as Tattarang’s chief investment officer.)

Meanwhile, John’s brother Edward has been getting around – stints with UBS, Caledonia, News Corp and sports-betting company Pointsbet as its chief strategy officer. The US division of Pointsbet is about to be acquired by sports-merch company Fanatics for $333m. And we now hear that’s where Hartman has ended up – he’ll be heading a media division at the firm.