While the PM was touting the airline’s national significance, its practices make it look more like a rapacious corporation
And, for those without the time or inclination to delve back further, it also followed the news that Albanese’s 23-year-old son had been given membership of the luxury Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, normally reserved for politicians and senior business figures – another clear indication of Qantas’s tight links with the Australian elite.
But running Australia’s most exclusive private club is just a marketing and lobbying arm for the real business of maintaining dominance of the Australian airline market. With a combined 60% market share, Qantas-Jetstar is the closest thing we have to a privately owned monopoly, outside the regulated utility sector.
All of this is justified by the perception, much encouraged by the company, that Qantas is Australia’s national flag carrier. This directly contradicts the rationale for Qantas’s privatisation in the 1990s, when it was claimed that the days of national airlines as essential public services were over. But Qantas has been happy to wrap itself in the national flag for political purpose, while vigorously denying that it has any obligations other than to maximise profit for its shareholders.
Does Qantas act as “The Spirit of Australia”? The experience of the pandemic shows us that Albanese’s claim that “Qantas has a long history of doing its bit to carry Australia” is the opposite of the truth. At a time of national crisis, our “flag carrier” could have stepped up and put its planes and staff at the service of the nation, organising low-cost repatriation flights and helping to deal with the logistical issues that plagued all kinds of supply chains.
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