Qantas’ announcement this morning that Richard Goyder and a couple of other directors would be moseying away from the smoking ruin that is the airline’s reputation over the course of the next year is another demonstration of how cluelessly out of touch this mob of jokers are.
It’s a revamp organised by those departing the board, not staying — another example of how Goyder and other directors, including new CEO Vanessa Hudson, have no grasp of being seen to do the right thing.
Qantas told the Australian Stock Exchange this morning that “chairman Richard Goyder will retire prior to the annual general meeting (AGM) in late 2024”. Before that, “to facilitate further renewal, Jacqueline Hey and Maxine Brenner will retire at the Qantas half-year results in February 2024 after 10 years of service”. Former Liberal staffer and public servant Michael L’Estrange is already bailing out.
New directors Doug Parker and Heather Smith — both recent appointees with clean hands around the Alan Joyce-era litany of debacles — will remain. But so will Todd Sampson, Antony Tyler and Belinda Hutchinson.
All three have been on the board for years — in Sampson’s case, since 2015. His purported marketing expertise hasn’t done anything to rescue Qantas from the greatest branding dumpster fire in Australian corporate history. Along with his fellow directors, he seems to have sat back and watched as Joyce and his management illegally sacked workers, engaged in anti-competitive conduct, flogged tickets for flights that didn’t exist and underpaid workers millions — never mind turning the once-beloved national carrier into a national joke.
That any Qantas director other than Parker and Smith is still there is a testament to a dearth of accountability at Qantas and the contempt the airline continues to harbour towards its workers and customers.
Goyder’s half-arsed retirement — in which he remains chair for another year despite presiding over every Qantas disaster over the past five years — is particularly insulting. The airline’s risible media release links the board turnover, such as it is, to “the significant reputational and customer service issues facing the group” and that it recognises “that accountability is required to restore trust”. But what accountability? Two directors who’ve been there a decade moving on (in 2024) and a chairman deciding he’ll wander off at a time of his own choosing, with no boardroom succession or renewal plan in place.
And right at the end of the statement was the most interesting news of all — Qantas is going to have an inquiry into the Joyce era: “The board has also commenced a process of independently reviewing key governance matters over the past 12 months and will share outcomes in the second quarter of calendar year 2024.”
Notice the word choice. It’ll share the “outcomes”, not the report itself, which in any event will be an internal product, not an independent one. What price a proper, rigorous inquiry while one of the two main culprits in these “governance matters”, Goyder, is still chair? What betting that Joyce is the scapegoat?
And what about the big issue hanging over the board — how it’ll handle Joyce’s mammoth long-term bonus despite the opprobrium he’s brought on the company and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s shocking revelations of tickets for no service?
This is “accountability” Qantas style: an internal inquiry, a board makeover where a couple of those who directly oversaw the trashing of the company face the inconvenience of bringing forward their retirement dates a little, or having to promise they’ll leave at some point late the following year, while the rest stay in on the giggle.
And that applies to Hudson too. She has never explained what she knew about the no-service scandal as CFO, or when she knew it. The “accountability” she faced was getting the top job. Ouch.
Yes. All of them hanging about like a foul smell. Rubbing our noses in it. Mocking their critics, their pilots, their other workers and their customers while continuing to help themselves to the loot. Promising us another year at least of this ghastly clown show. What a laugh!
This exposes, once and for all, the disaster of astronomical executive and board remuneration.
Dire Straits’s song “Money for Nothing” springs to mind.
The excuse of looking after shareholders is a joke, as if they cared about the long term interests of shareholders they’d have protected their main asset, their reputation and the goodwill of the Australian population. Instead, they trashed it, for short-term gains.
Short term greed is the problem and looking after one’s own interests, rather than those of loyal shareholders. To look after their main asset, they’d also look after their customers and their employees, as they’re the ones who provide ongoing income. Ignoring them is just plain stupid, although if they’re personally rewarded for doing this the incentive structure needs to be re-examined.
We’re replaying the 1980s, with ageing men trying to get their hands into the till before it’s too late for them.
“….with ageing men trying to get their hands into the till before it’s too late for them.”
My take is that this is all those “ageing men” have as their Testosterone dries up. But the moderated mobs refuse to let them through. 😉
Hay just as many women on the board doing exactly the same thing, get it rite
Yes there are women, but the chair of the board is a powerful bloke who will not be convinced by others to change his beliefs, as was the CEO. They were the ones in control. I doubt that the women would have had much of a chance of being heard or really taken seriously by either of these blokes. Interesting that the 2 people going from the board, aside from the chair (in a year’s time instead of now, the time of his personal choice – so yes powerful) are women, whilst the rest stay.
They are a fearless bunch – Goyder deserves 10 out of 10 for pure chutzpah. But zero out of 10 for ethics.
Gives Goyder a year to squeeze in swathe of first class trips around the world as a swan song. The man is shameless.
What a crew.