Friendly fire

Former exec takes Qantas to task

In the heated debate about Qantas, its desire to be released from the restrictions of the Qantas Sale Act and get a government guarantee along the way, there has been no commentary so incisive and devastating to the Qantas position as that delivered by David Epstein, former Qantas group executive and federal government prime ministerial adviser.

Epstein’s direct hit on the debt guarantee came in the form of a letter to the editor of the Australian Financial Review. It starts thus: “As a former Qantas executive who’s valued a friendship with Alan Joyce, it’s been difficult to watch the company take the path it has. True friendship, however, demands honesty and sometimes tough things need to be said. Qantas needs to end self-referential special pleading. ” And there is more – much more – from Epstein: “Much of what Qantas has lobbied for is inequitable, short-sighted and irresponsible: commercially, economically and, most likely, fiscally. It has no place in a well-governed, democratic and functional market economy. That said, the Qantas Sale Act should go, though it’s not crucial to Qantas’s issues, and the ALP should not stand in the way. ” And Epstein’s shotgun has a second barrel and that is for the Labor Party where he states: “The ALP should remember the prospective constraints the Act imposes on a company playing in an international services market. Remember is the operative word. The ALP had amendments to deal with this ready to legislate in 2009. It cannot claim consistency is on its side. ” As Kevin Rudd’s former chief of staff Epstein had intimate knowledge of what the legislative agenda was for the Labor Party.