Qantas chair John Mullen takes swipe at airline’s | Australian Markets

New Qantas chair John Mullen has blasted company Australia’s assist of the Voice marketing campaign and warned administrators towards going too far of their assist of “worthy causes”.

In a barely disguised swipe on the airline’s former high brass, Mr Mullen stated corporations did themselves no favours by “campaigning so actively” for the ‘Yes’ vote within the unsuccessful Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum on 2023.

“I think that many people from all walks of life saw corporate Australia’s position as lecturing and telling people what to do from a position of assumed moral superiority,” Mr Mullen stated on Tuesday.

“I don’t actually think that it was so much about whether one was for or against the Voice. People don’t like to be told by others what they should think or what they should do going forward.”

Mr Mullen, who took over as Qantas chair from Richard Goyder in September final 12 months, made the feedback within the keynote tackle to the Australian Institute of Firm Administrators governance convention in Sydney.

The Qantas board is grappling with an array of points after 16 years with hard-nosed chief govt Alan Joyce in charge, together with a $120 million damages invoice for an outsourcing program discovered by courts to have breached the Truthful Work Act.

The airline can be embarking on a long overdue refresh of its fleet however is battling to get new plane, leading to it having to delay deliberate expansions, leasing plane from different airways and renovating interiors of ageing jets.

When requested about the best way ahead for Qantas, Mr Mullen stated it remained one of the “most successful airlines in the world” after “two difficult years”.

“Without in any way downplaying any of the bad things that happened, you need to draw a line in the sand and move on,” he stated. “So that’s what we’re focusing on. There’s still a lot more work to be done.”

He stated new chief govt Vanessa Hudson led a “great management team”. “She’s not a chip off the old block of the past, good or bad,” he stated.

The board and management had a large accountability as a result of Qantas was half of the material of Australia.

“There’s an absolute requirement on us to get our act together and make sure that it becomes a respective brand — for the company and its for shareholders, but also for the nation,” he stated.

“I think Qantas is starting to get its its mojo back.”