I argued on Monday that the privatisation of Qantas Airlines is one of the most egregious acts of self-harm undertaken by any Australian government.
Qantas regularly gouges customers. It stymies competition. And it leverages its political muscle to limit other airlines’ flights to and from Australia.
Qantas CEO Allan Joyce is also a hated public figure.
Catherine King, the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, has faced criticism for declining Qatar Airways’ bid to double its flights to Australia, despite estimates that it would have produced an additional $500 million in tourism revenue and thousands of jobs.
Qantas, unsurprisingly, was the principal opponent of Qatar Airways’ bid and presumably pressured the government.
King argued the additional flights were not in Australia’s “national interest” and would have reduced jobs for Australians – a claim rejected by the tourism and aviation industries.
The decision to deny Qatar Airways’ application came after it was revealed that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s 23-year-old son was allowed membership in the private Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, which grants him free aircraft flight and endless champagne.
When quizzed on the matter, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce merely said: “I’ve been good mates with Albo for some time”.
The cronyism continued on Monday when Qantas chief Alan Joyce posed with his good mate Anthony Albanese to announce that three Qantas jets had been re-painted “Yes23” to support the The Voice:
As noted by The AFR’s Joe Aston: “For the unacquainted, “Yes23” is Albo’s answer to the dual questions “Would you like a secret Chairman’s Lounge membership for your son and how old is he?””.
“Albanese was in full rhetorical flight. “There is no company in Australia that immediately says Australia like this brand of Qantas,” he said”.
““The Spirit of Australia says yes!” he proclaimed. Since when does the Prime Minister of Australia subjugate his high office to the marketing tagline of a vendor, of a rapacious corporation?”
But wait, there’s more cronyism to this story.
Catherine King, the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, on Tuesday claimed her decision to block Qatar Airways’ application for more flights to Australia was because Qantas had invested heavily in new fleet and jobs must be protected, even though ticket prices “have been too high”.
“You’ve got our major airline, Qantas, [which] has just purchased brand new planes, that’s at a significant cost, and we’re going to see those [coming on stream]. They’re bigger planes, they’re quieter planes, they’re … better for the environment – so we’re going to start to see a lot of that”, King told radio in Cairns.
“International aviation certainly incoming is still not back to where we’d like it to be”.
“I think it’s going to take a very long time, if they ever do, to get back to pre‑COVID prices”, Ms King said.
As noted by Lindsay David on Twitter, “this politician doesn’t even pay for her plane tickets and she is running a protection racket for an airline that’s costing all of us travellers and absolute mint”:
Qantas’ business model is based on leveraging governments to get what it wants.
The federal government should deregulate the passenger aircraft market through an open-skies agreement, thereby clipping Qantas’ wings.
However, it will never happen. Our MPs are too busy sucking on Qantas’ teat and taking advantage of free gifts like Chairman’s Lounge access.
That’s crony capitalism in Australia for you.
