By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Since quitting the airline in the harsh glare of public opprobrium, public appearances by former Qantas boss Alan Joyce have been rarer than an all-points bookings to London during the Euro summer.
Despite possessing a corporate ego sturdier than the fuselage of a 787 Dreamliner, Joyce eventually buckled and resigned, effective immediately, in September 2023. He went under the weight of a succession of scandals, including regulatory legal action over allegations of selling cancelled flight tickets, a scandal over expiry dates on millions of COVID-19 flight credits, another over $2.7 billion JobKeeper handouts, and yet another over the sacking of nearly 2000 baggage handlers during the pandemic, now ruled illegal.
Alan Joyce is making a comeback on the corporate speaking circuit.Credit: Nine
But the signs are now unmistakable that the Ireland-born executive, 59, who calls Sydney home, is preparing to return from his self-imposed 15-month holiday on Elba. He has, you see, a lot to give.
Joyce has big plans to … hit the celebrity corporate speaking circuit. And he has already scored gigs.
“Yes, he has bookings,” his ebullient manager, Robert Joske, told CBD.
Joyce, never to do anything by halves, has signed up with three speaker agencies.
Keynote Entertainment said that Joyce was an engaging and dynamic speaker. “Alan combines sharp business insights with Irish storytelling charm,” it said.
Saxtons said Joyce had an “unwavering commitment to diversity”, and included him on its roster of Pride Month speakers including Khanh Ong, Tim Campbell, Ian Thorpe and Gina Chick.
Ovations, meanwhile, said Joyce was a gifted keynote speaker who “combines sharp business acumen with engaging Irish storytelling”, which we feel we have kinda read somewhere before.
No matter.
Joyce will be the star turn at the Australian Aviation Summit next month, Australian Aviation reports, adding it was “a rare opportunity to gain exclusive insights from a prominent aviation leader who has reshaped our industry”.
We can’t argue with that.
The hacked kangaroo
Staying with Qantas, just when the national carrier was starting to shrug off a reputation for rank incompetence and consumer dissatisfaction earned during Joyce’s final years in charge, millions of customers had their data stolen in a cyberattack last week.
That included details of members of Qantas’ notorious Chairman’s Lounge, the invitation-only club that includes all federal MPs, judges, senior public servants, and corporate leaders who can’t afford to fly private.
But CBD hears that for a fair chunk of Chairman’s Lounge members, the amount of data revealed was far broader than originally reported.
Some Chairman’s Lounge members received correspondence from Qantas last week informing them that their name, gender, home address, mobile number and frequent flyer details had all been compromised.
That combination of information in the hands of cybercriminals could leave some of the country’s most powerful people vulnerable to a spear-phishing attack, in which hackers pose as trusted sources in order to extract sensitive information.
Is it just us, or have readers also experienced an uptick in scamming calls since the great Qantas data hack? We are still waiting for the man from “PayPal security” who addressed us by our first name to phone us back after he had the temerity to call us on deadline last week.
The PM’s chief of staff is not happy
Fresh from winning a 94-seat election landslide, those who make up Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s operation have many reasons to be cheerful.
Or so we thought. Silly us. But with the Liberals crushed, and parliament’s return still a week away, the PM’s chief of staff, Tim Gartrell, has found a new enemy within: LinkedIn. Regular readers of this column would know that there’s been a flurry of prime ministerial staffers dashing for the exits in the post-election period.
That includes press secretary and ex-Guardian political editor Katharine Murphy, fellow media adviser Stela Todorovic and strategic communications director Katie Connolly.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks in Shanghai.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Many others have taken to LinkedIn and Instagram to pen lengthy farewells to life in politics, often featuring happy behind-the-scenes snaps with the PM. And we don’t blame them.
As much as CBD likes to make fun of lanyard-toting staffers, theirs is a gruelling, emotionally draining job. If our newly funemployed hacks want to adorn their LinkedIn profiles with a potentially salary-enhancing prime ministerial selfie, let them cook, we say.
But CBD hears Albanese’s top aide Gartrell, famed for past glories such as the Kevin 07 campaign and the Yes campaign for same-sex marriage, has always taken a weirdly dim view of staffers glamorising their lives on social media.
This all resurfaced at a PMO all-staff meeting last Friday, at which, according to some attendees, Gartrell made clear his displeasure about his comrades’ posting on LinkedIn and Instagram.
However, another source close to the PM’s office told CBD that Albanese’s chief of staff had simply reminded colleagues of their obligations under the ministerial staff code of conduct, which maintains that they must “be mindful that social media is publicly accessible and ensure their personal social media use is consistent with these standards”.
We know Labor is serious about its planned social media ban for under-16s, but didn’t realise some wanted to extend it all the way to the PM’s own staff.
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