iscover
Qantas has officially thrown its weight behind the Yes campaign for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The Flying Kangaroo has unveiled a new livery for three of its aircraft – a Qantas 737-800, a Jetstar A320, and a QantasLink Dash 8 – featuring the Yes campaign’s logo, saying it has long supported reconciliation and a “fair go”.
Officially announcing the airline’s support, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said a First Nations Voice will help close the gap for Indigenous people in areas including health, education and employment.
“Qantas has a long history of supporting reconciliation with First Nations people, from the Aboriginal artwork on our inflight magazine in the 1960s and on our aircraft since the 1990s, to our support for constitutional recognition in 2014, public support of the Uluru Statement of the Heart 2019, and our First Nations employment and supplier commitments,” he said.
“Like our Flying Art livery aircraft showcasing First Nations culture to a global audience, these aircraft will send a message of support for a Yes vote as they travel the country.
“We know there are a range of views on this issue, including amongst our customers and employees, and we respect that. I encourage people to find out more, to listen to First Nations voices, and to make their own decisions.”
Qantas, which had signalled in May that it would support the Voice, will also assist the Yes23 campaign and Uluru Dialogue teams with travel to rural and remote areas of Australia to help residents engage with the referendum.
The Voice to Parliament is not the first national vote in recent years that has won Qantas’s support. Joyce and the Flying Kangaroo famously came out in favour of the Yes campaign for marriage equality in 2017.
Joyce was among the 20 chief executives at some of Australia’s largest corporations who signalled their support of marriage equality in a letter to then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in March of that year, including the heads of the Commonwealth Bank, Holden, Telstra and Wesfarmers.
His stance drew criticism from figures such as then-Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton, who accused the Qantas chief executive and others who signed the letter of using shareholders’ money to “throw their weight around in these debates”.
However, Joyce said it was part of his role as Qantas’s chief executive and “part of every corporate leader’s role to have a view on social and community issues”.
