Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to share a couple of figures with the Senate before I go to the crux of my conversation. I want to remind senators and anyone listening that, on 8 October 2024, Qantas was ordered by the Federal Court to pay $100 million in penalties for misleading consumers by offering and selling tickets to ghost flights it had already decided to cancel and by failing to tell existing ticketholders of their flight's cancellation. Then, if we move to December of 2024, Qantas was fined $120 million in compensation to sacked workers, taking the financial impost so far to $210 million. Then, last month, the Federal Court fined Qantas another $90 million for illegally outsourcing ground-handling roles during the pandemic. That's $310 million, not small change in anyone's world. But then I read the paper yesterday and I found the title 'The lying kangaroo'. It said that Qantas was fined $2 million for misleading passengers in New Zealand. They have form through their Jetstar arm. This is after the Australian consumer watchdog took action against Jetstar for similar conduct in 2018.

What I want to say is this. Those of us in this building, like most of Australia, want to wish Qantas well. We want to wish Qantas success. But we should never, ever forget the stain left on this nation by Alan Joyce with his cohort mate Richard Goyder, the chairman, and that bunch of grifters that were on the board at the time. Let us not forget that. Fortunately, now Qantas has moved to one of the most decent human beings in the Australian business community, John Mullen, and I wish Mr Mullen all the very best success. I see Qantas have just about cleaned out their board. There are a few hangers-on. I wish them all the best for their success. I really want to believe that the CEO, Vanessa Hudson, who was the chief financial officer at the time—'Nothing to see here; I don't know about that'—has turned over a new leaf. She said she wanted to turn a leaf and wants to rebuild Qantas, and I certainly hope so.

That brings me to the crux of my conversation that I want to share with the Senate today. Let's leave an absolute tearing apart of Qantas and their behaviour. I want to highlight to the rest of the Senate and everyone else around that I saw a couple of weeks ago there had been the Australian Aviation Summit. I asked, 'What's the Australian Aviation Summit?' As someone who has been on the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee for 20 years and chaired it for 18 and a bit, I am very interested in Australia's aviation sector. But I could not believe it. Guess who the headline speaker to the Australian Aviation Summit was? You are not going to believe it when I tell you, but I have to. Alan Joyce! I thought: 'There can't be two Alan Joyces. Seriously, there cannot be two.' No, I was right. It was the same person who drove this national iconic company into the ground. And don't worry about all the bulldust that he will come up with; he entered into corrupt behaviour. He and all his lieutenants in Qantas couldn't wait for the darkness of night to sneak in and execute 1,700 well-paid Australian jobs in the aviation sector, the ground handlers.

How do I know this? Why am I so passionate about it? Because they were Transport Workers Union members. That's my union. I organised on the airport in my heyday as a young, brash organiser from the Perth eastern suburbs. Didn't I have fire in the belly? We fought for years to lift the wages and conditions of employees in the aviation industry. Then this fellow came in and in the dark of night slashed good-paying Australian jobs. He outsourced them. It led to $310 million in fines. I say to Justice Lee, 'Good on you.' They're lucky it wasn't Justice Sterle because it would have been a heck of a lot more and I wouldn't be finished with Alan Joyce. Seriously, the Australian Aviation Summit—who are you? Do you really believe that your members want to come in and listen to Alan Joyce? I better not call him a white-collar criminal because I might get pulled up.

But let me say this. The principal partner was Leidos—I don't know who Leidos are either; they could be some really decent people. Who would want their name associated with Alan Joyce in Australia's business community? Seriously, I thought I was having a bad dream, that it was a nightmare and I was going to wake up. But, no, there's more. Airservices Australia—and don't I have a relationship with Airservices Australia; but it doesn't extend to Christmas cards in December, I can tell you! We've been working with Airservices Australia for many years. I was thinking, 'Who else?' The list goes on, but I've run out of time. Damn it!