The great debate

“In a Senate committee hearing room in Parliament House, Canberra, the government went on the offensive against someone who had directly challenged the power of the unions,” said Sheehan.

“Government senators and their Green allies took cheap shots, exaggerated, sneered, distorted, indulged in conspiracy theories, made personal attacks and did everything but exhibit an understanding of how to run a business.

“Three Labor senators, Alex Gallacher, Doug Cameron and Glenn Sterle, all former union officials, were joined by two Greens senators, Bob Brown and Scott Ludlam, taking turns putting the boot into Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Qantas.

Not one of this pack of inquisitors has ever run a substantial business but all have highly developed ideas of entitlements. ” And Sheehan mused that after 83 minutes of inquisition it blew up in the government’s face when the opposition industrial relations spokesman, Senator Eric Abetz, asked Joyce what would have happened if the government had invoked section 431 of the Fair Work Act, which entitles the Minister for Transport to stop industrial action if it is damaging the economy.

“Would that have pre-empted his spectacular action of grounding the entire Qantas fleet last weekend?” Abetz asked.

“Absolutely,” Joyce replied. “Section 431 is very clear. It would have stopped me taking the industrial action I was taking, and would have stopped the lockout. ” Sheehan says that “the great failure in this long-running, slow-burning, highly disruptive industrial dispute was the government’s willingness to ignore the multiple pleas from the tourism industry to put an end to the months of industrial guerilla tactics being used by unions representing Qantas engineers, long haul pilots, baggage handlers and caterers. ”The Senate hearing was ostensibly about a bill proposed by independent Senator Nick Xenophon which would limit the ability of Qantas to operate subsidiaries using foreign based staff.

Joyce said that the proposal “would not make us any more Australian. It would not protect Australian jobs and would have the opposite effect. It would put our business in jeopardy and would threaten Australian jobs. The bill contemplates locking Qantas inside Australian borders. This is protectionism.

No company can hide from the threat and opportunities of globalisation. ” Sheehan agreed with a sting.

“Based on this proposed bill, and his performance on Friday, Senator Xenophon would be better named Senator Xenophobe. Without a shred of evidence he challenged the veracity of a claim by Qantas that its international division lost $200 million last year. ” And Joyce had a telling response.

“Several weeks ago we offered the ACTU an independent audit … [to] bring the conspiracy theories and the debate over this issue to a close. We are still waiting for a response. ” Sheehan said that “in full xenophobic mode, the Senator then raised the spectre of Asian sweatshop workers stealing the jobs of Australian workers. Again, Joyce was obliged to dismiss his scare-mongering: “The $400-a-month contract is nonsense. These people are making $2000 a month. Our Thai [Jetstar] cabin crew are paid 10 times the average salary in Thailand. ” Sheehan in his analysis said that Senator Bob Brown then ramped up the insults: “You went about deliberately withholding your plan for a lockout from the Prime Minister and the Minister for Transport …” Joyce: “That’s not true, Senator …” Brown: “You were very obscure and devious …” Joyce: “Sorry, Senator, I think that’s an absolutely inappropriate thing to say … The lockout wasn’t our plan all along, so you’re incorrect on that. ” Brown: “You had a big stick behind your back and you didn’t show it to anybody. ” Joyce: “No, it’s not true. The Fair Work Act gives us the option of taking industrial action as well. There has to be a balance between a company and its employees.

Nobody is complaining about the massive industrial action by unions over an extended period that was killing Qantas. I had to do something. ” Taking a very different view was Peter Lewis, a director of Essential Media Communications (EMC), a public affairs and research company specialising in campaigning for progressive social and political organisations.

Lewis wrote: “Amidst the industrial carnage wrought by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce last week was a brief glimpse of what survival for the Gillard government might look like.

“It would start with a corporate leader arrogantly putting his commercial interests ahead of the national interest, to the cheers of his fellow CEOs.

“It would move into a debate about whether loyal Australian workers had a right to expect any sort of say in the way their workplace was run; or whether they should be forced to cop whatever the latest management team cooked up.

“It would give voice to the federal front bench, for once united on a matter of principle they truly believed in, providing a platform to speak up for the values of their movement.

“And it would end with the Federal Opposition, stripped of any pretence of policy, in a tangle over the WorkChoices bogey, simply barracking for the big end of town because that is what they are conditioned to do. ” Lewis was able to say that the first polling since the Qantas lockout and grounding showed that Labor is picking up solid ground – several points – on the Coalition.

“What we do know is that the general public and Labor voters in particular had a very clear view of the events of the past seven days. ” To the question “Do you approve or disapprove of Qantas’s decision to ground all planes last weekend”, 66 per cent of Labor and 63 per cent of Green voters gave the thumbs down, while 53 per cent of Liberal voters thought it was a good thing.

“Significantly,” said Lewis “the handling of the dispute has rallied the Labor support base with two-thirds disapproving of the Qantas play and in a separate question blaming Qantas management over workers for the debacle.

Lewis, however, noted that “it is probably just a moment of polling sunshine, but the past week shows that when the stars align, there is still hope for the ALP. If only there were more people like Alan Joyce. ”