FLYING KANGAROO BOUND FOR COURT
The consumer watchdog is taking Qantas to court for allegedly selling tickets to flights the airline had already cancelled. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claims in a statement filed with the Federal Court of Australia yesterday that Qantas “engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct”.
The alleged deception worked like this: Qantas cancelled certain flights — for reasons such as “network optimisation, route withdrawals or retention of take-off and landing slots at certain airports” — then continued to offer tickets for sale for the same flights, according to the court documents. “On average, such flights were offered for sale for approximately 16 days after cancellation,” the ACCC claims.
Customers who had booked the flights received “no indication” on Qantas’ booking management service that the flights had been cancelled. Making customers believe the flights had not been cancelled when they in fact had been “was false and misleading”, the ACCC claims, “because despite Qantas continuing to display the flight information on the ‘Manage Booking’ page, there was no flight with the stated flight number and scheduled time and date that had not been cancelled, because Qantas had cancelled it.”
The Sydney Morning Herald ($), which broke the story, reported Treasurer Jim Chalmers as saying the allegations were “deeply concerning”. Qantas told the newspaper it would examine the allegations and respond in full to them in court.
TURF WAR
Greens and Labor MPs are now soldiers in a “super war”, according to The Australian ($). The newspaper reports the minor party will threaten to block the government’s proposed $2.3 billion tax increase on superannuation balances for wealthy retirees. That’s unless Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and co agree to spend $200 million a year from the tax increase on superannuation payments for women who access the Commonwealth paid parental leave program.
The super war would be a new front in the conflict between the Greens and Labor; the latter has had its proposed affordable housing policy thwarted by the pesky crossbenchers. The attack lines from both parties write themselves: it’s now possible for Labor to claim that the same retirees the Greens have called “obscenely wealthy” — with their super balances in excess of $3 million — will have the minor party to thank for their continued prosperity if the tax increase fails. Albanese and his ministers have already accused the Greens of using its Senate balance of power to “play politics”.
And the Greens can claim Labor doesn’t care about the cost-of-living crisis or women, or alternatively that the government doesn’t try hard enough to help them. In fact, they already have. The party’s women’s issues spokeswoman Larissa Waters told the Oz: “This is such a timid proposed change to the tax concessions the obscenely wealthy receive. If Labor is not going to improve it, the least they can do is put it to good use … We will use our balance of power in the Senate to get outcomes for women and young families who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.” Expect this to be a hot topic when Parliament returns next week.
SAY WHAT?
For people who like to discuss wiping me out, or my private life, how much I earn or whatever else — everything’s OK.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
A video has emerged of the Wagner mercenary group leader alluding to threats to his life, apparently filmed just weeks before he died in a plane crash in Russia on August 23. The clip, which runs for less than half a minute, shows Prigozhin in camouflage fatigues and inside a vehicle on a road, the BBC reports. “For those who are discussing whether I’m alive or not, how I’m doing — right now it’s the weekend, second half of August 2023, I’m in Africa,” Prigozhin is heard saying. Now who could possibly have wanted to hurt him? Perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called the Wagner boss’s attempted mutiny in June a “stab in the back”? Putin denies any part in his death, but has refused to conduct a probe under international rules, Politico reports. A preliminary US intelligence assessment has concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash, and that it’s “very likely” Prigozhin was targeted, according to Al Jazeera.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Another intergenerational report is out, and with it, the perennial scare campaign about the sustainability of public services. According to Labor’s Aged Care Minister Anika Wells, aged care is now on the front line. Speaking at the National Press Club on June 7, Wells ominously warned: ‘We must act now. The baby boomers are coming.’
“Some in the media have picked up the message, dutifully painting a terrifying picture of an impending demographic crisis: a tsunami of senior citizens wiping out the nation’s prosperity with their seemingly outrageous demands of dignity, care and human rights. The AFR’s Phil Coorey ran a piece in July approvingly reporting on Wells’ desire for ‘generational equity’, which, he wrote, means ‘increasing means testing and user pays’.”
“ ‘Nuclear submarines are the apex predator of the oceans.’ So said Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Malcolm Davis to The Australian Financial Review back in March, responding to news that the federal government would help fund and develop new naval production capability for nuclear submarine models, known as SSNs, as part of the AUKUS deal.
“Apex predator. The two words capture it all. Think power. Invincibility. Triumph. Admirals speak in awe of the submarine’s ability to move fast, travel vast distances undetected by the enemy and stay ‘on station’, as the jargon has it, for months at a time.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro questioned about sneaking in diamond jewelry and the sale of two luxury watches (Associated Press)
How Evergrande’s downfall signalled China’s property crisis (Reuters)
At least 74 dead after fire tears through building used as temporary housing in South Africa (CNN)
Donald Trump pleads not guilty in Georgia election racketeering case (The Guardian)
Gabon coup leaders name General Brice Oligui Nguema as new leader (BBC)
US court sentences Proud Boys member to 17 years in jail over Capitol siege (AFP)
THE COMMENTARIAT
It can be a battle to get information from the Albanese government — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “Thank goodness for Senate committees. This week, they’ve proved, yet again, to be worth their weight in accountability gold.
“On Monday, at an inquiry into the cost of living, senators from both sides gave Qantas boss Alan Joyce a salutary roughing-up over everything from yet-to-be-returned flight credits to the government’s blocking of extra Qatar Airways flights and Joyce’s contacts with Anthony Albanese. (Subsequently, Qantas has announced it is removing the expiry date on the COVID travel credits.)
“On Tuesday, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, which is probing the operation of the federal freedom of information laws, heard disturbing evidence from former FOI commissioner Leo Hardiman, who months ago resigned only a year into his five-year term. Hardiman detailed a litany of obstacles in resourcing and culture in the administration of FOI, which he could not overcome.”
Small states’ premiers speak out on Voice as Minns, Andrews hang back — James Massola (SMH) ($): “Chris Minns and Daniel Andrews run the states that could get the national vote in the Voice referendum over the line — so where are the premiers? Almost 60% of the nation’s population lives in either NSW or Victoria. But neither Andrews nor Minns — who can help secure two of the four states needed to pass the referendum, along with a national majority — had much to say about the referendum campaign on Thursday.
“Minns said his NSW government would be ‘talking with the Yes23 campaign about what we can do to lend our support for what we regard as the next iteration for social progress in Australia’ — without committing to any campaign events.
“Victorian Premier Andrews backed the Voice during question time on Thursday because ‘the old way is not working’ and noted ‘the billions of dollars being spent every year to see our Closing the Gap matrix get worse, not better’.”
Don’t forget your dad as I’ll never forget mine — Erin Molan (The Daily Telegraph) ($): “In some cultures they believe that you die twice — once when you take your last breath and again when people stop talking about you. I’m determined that my dad, the former senator Jim Molan, will only ever die once.
“Not because our family think we are special, but because dad was. In so many ways, so many more ways than people realised, ways that we shall talk about forever.
“Sunday is Father’s Day and it will be our family’s first without him. I’m not going to pretend that we all took it very seriously every year and made a big deal out of it, we didn’t.”
“Run me kangaroo down, clown,
Run me kangaroo down,
Run me kangaroo down, clown
Run the kangaroo down….”
It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. In October 2011, when Qantas grounded its fleet and locked out its workforce, they would have been selling tickets on flights that Joyce had planned to cancel. They probably should have been prosecuted under consumer law back then.