Should Qantas Pay Back The $726m

So Alan Joyce the out going Qantas CEO has defended refusing to pay back any of the money [$726m] they where given to them during COVID to keep them afloat by the government.

Alan Joyce sacked over 9000 workers during COVID to keep the flying Kangaroo in the air. Most people probably accept we do 'need a domestic' carrier and thus the handouts where seen as a nessary action by the federal government. It is important to note other business also got handouts and refused to give the money back ie Harvey Norman. However many business did had back the money

However Qantas has announced it has made a 'record' profit of 2.7billion before tax [arguably from price gouging and the built up need to travel post COVID] making their bottem line health - 1.7 net profit after tax

Alan Joyce is refusing to pay back of the money given to the company - keeping in mind Alan Joyce has been a vocal critic on social justice issues in the past painting himself to be someone who cares about socialist issues….however to me it seems Mr Joyce is happy to 'spend' other peoples time and effort on issues but when it comes to the company he represents he is happy to line his pockets and the pockets of shareholders.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/i-will-…

My question is simple do you think Qantas should have to pay the money back to the Australian tax payers either 'out of good will' via a special tax which will remain in place till the entire handout is paid back with indexation level interest

Poll Options

  • 837
    Qantas should pay the money back
  • 43
    Qantas shouldnt pay the money back

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Comments

  • +113

    On a side note having flown Qatar Airways multiple times now, I find it atrocious that Albanese has declined them (Qatar) an extra 21 flights per week to service our country. Instead of putting the needs of our people first, of course they try to prop up the pathetic "national" airline we call Qantas.

    Then Jane Hume has the audacity to thank Joyce for the exclusive membership politicians receive from Qantas. Makes me sick to my stomach this stuff goes on.

    • +7

      I could be wrong, but I heard 48 more international flights needed,
      Albanese won't as this is to keep the prices and demand high.

      • +9

        Yes, god forbid we give good prices to consumers!

    • +27

      Albanese has declined them

      Albo did personally?

      He must be running as many departments as ScoMo did! Meanwhile here I am struggling to keep my life together

      • +2

        Not him personally, but his government. People just tend to choose the leader of the party when criticizing.

        Still better than the waste of money having LNP in, but it's worth calling out corruption regardless of the party.

    • +4

      "Makes me sick to my stomach this stuff goes on."

      That

    • +19

      I'm sure Albo's son's Chairman's loung membership had nothing to do with it either

    • +4

      For the ALP it's about protecting what few unionised jobs are left in the aviation industry.

      Let another competitor in and jobs will be lost as people buy flights from Qatar Airlines. It's that simple.

      • +3

        having the whooping ass profit and save a few jobs yeah, other airlines will hire Aussies as well, there can be ways government help us for a better aviation experience rather than just shut the door.

      • +2

        Man if only people had cared about Ansett back in the day…

        • Which one was more premium in its day Ansett or Qantas?

      • +4

        Qatar would be operating in Australia, meaning they would use Australian workers?
        Joyce has been cutting thousands of jobs already, so how would more jobs be lost exactly?

      • Protectionism is not the answer.

    • Shitty chairman longue probabaly have to make their own ham cheese tomato toasties like the plebs in the platinum lounge do -_-

    • https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2023/08/albo-goes-full-scom…

      Albo says not his fault. Automatically not involved in any dodgy decisions that get uncovered, despite being the 5th highest paid country leader in the world. Bit like Scomo…chairman Dan…et al

    • +1

      I wish I can vote more than once. The gov can't explain why they block it. I think ebit govs (alp or lib) would block it. We need corruption investigation Abt it

    • +1

      As soon as I heard about that it reaffirmed the government is not serving the people, but instead corporate interests. It is devaluing the point of electing a government 'representative' in the first place.

  • +78

    Socialized their debt and privatized their profit

    Bloody oath they should

    • +9

      America's greatest export!

      • +1

        Maybe whilst we the public are getting our money back from the millionaires at Qantas…

        …perhaps we should do the same to General Motors for stealing all our "Holden Money" from few years back ?

  • +11

    As much as I loathed the man himself and the actual reason why I don't travel on Qantas (unless I have to), jobkeeper has been used purposefully and did help support Qantas during the times of government-imposed restrictions.

    The talk about paying it back is, as much as I loath to admit, derived from the place of envy and jealousy. To be quite frank, profit reporting has been used these days instead as a barometer of achievement / reason for celebration, it is being used as a stick for social justice agenda (like this). And of course, the media fanned this sentiment in pursuit of publicity and to be quite frank, they are doing the country a great dishonour and disservice.

    Do they really want Qantas to be unprofitable?

    • +11

      Many companies received this and decided to pay back.

      • +16

        The ones who paid it back managed profits during covid-19. In fact for Harvey Norman, not only was it profitable.. during covid in 2021 it made record profits. The requirement for Jobkeeper was to receive payment, the company is supposed to forecast a drop of greater than 30% of revenue, bit of a farce for Harvey Norman.

        Qantas had huge losses over Covid. Actual revenues dropped by 90+%. Not surprising with hardly anything flying. They well and truly met the requirement for JobKeeper. Really to be fair, if you take away JobKeeper payments .. it should be from the Qantas employees that was stood down but received the JobKeeper payments as they were the ultimate recepient. If Qantas didn't sack thousands of workers, the JobKeeper payments would have been much higher again.

        • -1

          Here's the thing with the Harvey Norman jobkeeper thing. All stores are franchised right. In fact there can be multiple franchises within one physical store. Each franchise had to show the 30% drop in sales in order to get the JK. A large number of franchises did not qualify at any stage through the JK period. So they have nothing to "pay back" as they got nothing in the first place.

          In order to make a valid claim on whether it should be paid back or not, you would have to get each individual franchises performance that did get the JK over that period and if they did rake it in, well then maybe they should have. But not every franchise made buckets of money.

          I know it goes against the consensus but, it's something to consider.

        • I agree

      • +10

        Jobkeeper is NOT a loan. It is a grant. If everyone has to pay back their grant once they become profitable, then it would be best NOT to get it in the first place. I certainly wouldn't. It creates a string upon your neck and you become somehow "indebted".

        Also, this is 2023 results we are talking about, 2 years at least after Jobkeeper. If you want to bitch about paying it back, then you have to ask EVERYONE who got jobkeeper to pay it back because apparently everyone are now profitable since.

        Really…. we need to stop this vicious cycle of envy and jealousy.

        • +16

          Jobkeeper is NOT a loan. It is a grant

          There are endless things wrong with jobkeeper, but you are correct, it was a grant. It should have had clauses that allowed for companies to pay back the money, like Harvey Norman that posted record sales/profits during the JK periods not 30% drops like what was required.

          The issue with Qantas isn't so much $726m in job keeper payments, but the extra near $2b in total gov payments this 'private' company received to keep them afloat that only a year or two later they can turn around and post $2b+ in profits.

          Qantas wants to be a private company when its making money, and wants its hand out for tax payer money when it isn't. Remember that, all these jobkeep 'grants' are tax payers money at the end of the day.

          • +2

            @JimmyF:

            It should have had clauses that allowed for companies to pay back the money, like Harvey Norman that posted record sales/profits during the JK periods not 30% drops like what was required.

            And if they were individuals, instead of hugely profitable businesses, they would have been made to pay it back if they were not eligible.

            • +1

              @Miss B:

              And if they were individuals, instead of hugely profitable businesses, they would have been made to pay it back if they were not eligible.

              Spot on!! cough cough Robodebt anyone?

              If a individual steals they go to jail, if a business steals, they get a slap on the wrist at best.

        • Let me get this straight. If you were CEO of Qantas, you would let the company fold instead of taking a favourable grant/loan from the federal government because it's "a string upon your neck and you become somehow indebted", but companies getting unfavourable loans from private banks, you know, usual business practises, would be better?

          You do realise that this is taxpayer money used to bailout a private company during a global pandemic, right? And they chose to pay dividends to shareholders, using that taxpayer money. And they're practically a government protected near monopoly in certain markets.

          The envy and jealousy is coming from Qantas board and shareholders looking at other successful companies and wanting the taxpayer to prop up their mismanaged private company.

          After the 2008 financial crisis, Obama bailed out companies that would have folded, with terms that required them to pay back the money. The firms have paid back the money to the American taxpayer, with interest, and are thriving.

          You're either a Qantas shareholder or Alan Joyce.

          • @Vanceer:

            CEO of Qantas, you would let the company fold instead of taking a favourable grant/loan from the federal government

            Qantas like every other business had 'options' to borrow money. They didn't have to cry to the gov for $1b+ in tax payer money that other companies didn't get offered. Qantas collected $2b in tax payer funds with no need to pay it bad. Pure disgusting by the libs.

            You do realise that this is taxpayer money used to bailout a private company during a global pandemic, right? And they chose to pay dividends to shareholders, using that taxpayer money. And they're practically a government protected near monopoly in certain markets.

            and that is everything wrong with it. This mega profit from Qantas is basically tax payer money. What this tells me is that Qantas could have borrowed money and paid it back in a couple of years of no profit.

            The envy and jealousy is coming from Qantas board and shareholders looking at other successful companies and wanting the taxpayer to prop up their mismanaged private company.

            Agreed Qantas is either a private company and should be treated as such by the tax payer or it a gov funded company and we the tax payers get that profit not shareholders.

            After the 2008 financial crisis, Obama bailed out companies that would have folded, with terms that required them to pay back the money. The firms have paid back the money to the American taxpayer, with interest, and are thriving.

            It was such a failure by the aus gov to not put simple terms in this like. Even jobkeeper was a failure by failing to factor in companies that thought they might have downturn but didn't collecting cash.

        • +2

          Jobkeeper was a grant. Qantas claim the jobkeeper as per the law - there is no disagreement with this. All the other payments made also were grants/subsidies with no claw back/payback clauses inserted.

          In hindsight (again no one had a crystal ball when COVID struck - things could have been far far worse) things should be done differently but there was so much uncertainty, and even how fast the recovery and whether there was be another dip no one knew. At least these payments/subsidies stabilised the situation.

          What I am not happy about is the current anticompetitive arrangements that allows the government to prevent Qatar's extra flights. What I would have said to Qantas is to increase the capacity (of these routes to match or at least 66% of what Qatar proposed - or Qatar can fill in the extra flights if you can't do so). These arrangements should be dropped. I don't understand why everyone in Australia loves to fly Qantas. They are honestly not on par with Singapore Airlines and their product I would not call world class. That is what you get from distorted competition. It is just the big companies (mostly public) that pay theses high airfares and people who benefit from their platinum status due to work.

        • I agree

          Besides, qantas will pay tax on that profits, normally 25% would go back to the federal government anyway, plus 10% gst.

          Unless they have some irish subsidiary

        • This is a strawman argument. Nobody says "hey look, now those people are super rich in 2022, they should pay back the jobkeeper they received in 2020". Reasonable folks are only demanding companies repay jobkeeper money when it's clear they never needed it in the first place.

          There should have been a simple condition where if it turns out you did make a huge profit instead of a loss, you pay it back. or pay some back.

          At the end of the day, someone is paying for it - why is it more fair for that to be everyday taxpayers, most of whom never received the free cash to begin with?

    • +2

      Qantas recieced this amount on top of JobKeeper, and no other airlines in Australia received it; very much a Qantas special

    • +3

      I want privatised profits TO MEAN PRIVATISED LOSSES

    • +5

      The part i dont like about Qantas besides the CEO, is this is another Telstra mess. A public company then made somewhat privatised and hence still seems to get all the "special" treatments government owned companies get and protections but at the same time doesnt have to care about the public it is there to service and will do everything in its power to maximise profits for itself at the detriment of whats best for the country and its people.

      When i was studying IT a couple of decades ago, we did so much into Telstra and how that whole fiasco basically set back telecommunications in australia for decades. Lets not forget Qantas told the government to not provide any assistance to Virgin when it asked for it and Virgin went under, less competition for Qantas and higher prices for the people.

    • Do they really want Qantas to be unprofitable?

      Even if they pay it back in full, they have still made a significant profit.

    • How about 1000s small & medium businesses gone belly up ? Where were their help ? Paid it back !!!

    • +1

      Takeaway food businesses cleaned up during covid, every one of them I worked with said they did the best business they ever have. People love junk food at it was literally a good excuse to get out of the house.

    • +9

      If the burger food truck made 2.7billion before tax, they should too.

      • -2

        that’s the problem. Because someone is earning less, someone is exempted. Same with the B***shit ATO thing. Those people who are working hard are hammered so badly when those junkies are treated like a queen.

    • +1

      If Qantas is paying back, might as well the burger food truck in my area.

      If the burger food truck is making record profits, then yeah it should offer the money back.

      • I think the difference is that all the small businesses only got a few thousand dollars to "help out" - I feel the Qantas handout was substantially out of proportion.
        Perhaps there should have been something put in place by the Government to require re-payment of a certain proportion in the event of xx% return to profit with xx timeframe. Of course there would be a fair bit of bureaucracy to maintain this.
        I think the thing that irks a lot of the tax payers is blatant price gouging.

        • +1

          I think the difference is that all the small businesses only got a few thousand dollars to "help out" - I feel the Qantas handout was substantially out of proportion.

          I agree, Everyone got offered JobKeeper, Qatnas had its hand out for that, but also this magical $1.3b in extra funding appeared under the table that other businesses didn't offered. That is the bit that sucks.

          Perhaps there should have been something put in place by the Government to require re-payment

          Should have stopped there, no need for special conditions. It should have always been gov loan and never a handout. Companies shouldn't expect the tax payer to fund them during the bad times but when during the good times, they don't give any of the profit back to the gov. The Qantas setup was a very one way street. Here is $2b in tax payer funds….. Oh look you made $2b+ in profits, sure give that to the shareholders as that makes total sense…. NOT.

  • +1

    Were they overpaid?

  • +26

    Alan Joyce is a smarmy little git.

    • +2

      Isn't he just ! Such a phony.

      • +4

        Sniveling little bitch in a suit

        • I think he has upper respiratory issues.

  • +20

    Alan Joyce had the cheek to say they are paying it back, in the form of taxes, that they would of had to pay anyway.

    • +19

      I wish my student loans worked the same way.

  • +8

    Or at least pay our flight credits…

  • Dutton is Biden his time ,

  • +2

    Is it me or Qantas keeps getting the green light to keep slipping out from the governments hands

  • +12

    Government should have received shares equivalent to Covid payments in each of these cases. This also gives the government a reason to make sure that the business doesn't sink, invests tax payer $$$ in the Australian economy, and shows something, in return for the funds.

    • although i agree - the issue then becomes 2 fold the next time Qantas needs a bail out the government is a major shareholder and will be 'expected' to bail them out.

      the 2nd issue is it isnt fair for competition and other companies that were bailed out that are not publicly listed

      however i did say this at the time the money should of came with the strings that the government now is a large shareholder of Qantas like air NZ is owned partly by the NZ
      government - this any future dividends got back to the tax payers

      • Did the government take shares from Myer, Flight Centre, etc ? They all got hundreds of millions off JobKeeper. What makes Qantas special…

        • +6

          Did the government take shares from Myer, Flight Centre, etc ? They all got hundreds of millions off JobKeeper. What makes Qantas special…

          They should have, the thing that makes Qantas 'special' is it got a extra $2b in payments under the table of tax payer money to stay afloat, and now posting record profits in the $2b+ range.

          • +1

            @JimmyF: On top of charging those tax payer now double to get on their planes.

            Effing travesty

      • although i agree - the issue then becomes 2 fold the next time Qantas needs a bail out the government is a major shareholder and will be 'expected' to bail them out.

        Nothing stopping the gov selling the shares when the price is up so they are not on the hook next time around ;)

  • Was the 726m in addition to what any company could collect?

  • +14

    Qantas and Joyce are disgusting. It's infuriating to see the (current and previous) government protecting Qantas (blocking Qatar Airways among many other things) while we are completely screwed. Joyce is laughing after taking us for a ride.

    The fact that Qantas steals money from people is just another problem. Qantas has repeatedly charged double fees when I had to buy tickets from them (because at times Virgin/Rex flights were not an option). Those bastards made me waste hours and hours on the phone to get my money back, and there is 1600 from COVID that I have not been able to have back.

    I hope Joyce and all the Qantas leadership burn in hell.

  • +1

    I absolutely hate Qantas, I have successfully refused to fly with them for about 15 years until this year where my travel had limited options.

    Visitors to Australia have sometimes asked me if Qantas staff were racist, to which I firmly proclaim they are not, they treat all people with the equal disdain.

    NO. Qantas should not be made to pay back the money, if they are why don't we do that for ALL government payments.

    A one off $700m is absolutely insignificant compared to the tens of billions Australian taxpayers bleed in Welfare Hand Outs.

    I actually have no issue with asking them to pay it back BUT it should have been made as a loan OR a equity purchase from the start. Don't give them money then turn around and say oh you are too successful now.

    • +5

      A one off $700m is absolutely insignificant compared to the tens of billions Australian taxpayers bleed in Welfare Hand Outs.

      The problem is, it wasn't $700m, it was closer to $2b.

      https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/22/qantas-on-t…

    • +4

      if Qantas staff were racist, to which I firmly proclaim they are not

      To the contrary

      Qantas actively support racism…

          • @jv: Which ever side of the debate anyone supports - it's not racist. What an idiotic thing to say.

            • @RecklessMonkeys: It is literally the definition of racism.

              • +1

                @jv: Oh you poor, poor white man.

                • @RecklessMonkeys: people usually deflect when they are wrong… :)

                  • +1

                    @jv: Is that why there's no substance to your argument?

                    Attempting to right past wrongs is racist? Yeah we did genocide and disenfranchised an entire race (hint - that's racism), but it's all cool now. They'll figure it out themselves now.

                    • @RecklessMonkeys:

                      Is that why there's no substance to your argument?

                      It's not an argument, it is fact.

                      • @jv: Listening to a group of people who had their ancestors murdered is racism. Good one.

                        • @RecklessMonkeys:

                          Listening to a group of people who had their ancestors murdered is racism.

                          What is stopping you from listening now ???

                          Are you saying the current Indigenous Affairs minister is incompetent ?

                    • -2

                      @RecklessMonkeys:

                      Attempting to right past wrongs is racist?

                      Treating people differently, just because of their race, is racist.

                      Lots of things in the past were 'wrongs' based on today's values… Different values back then…

                      • @jv: That's crap.

                        Racism is the process by which systems and policies, actions and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race.

                        • @RecklessMonkeys:

                          That's crap.

                          No it's not.

                          Racism is where people get preferential treatment or discriminated against just because of their race.

                          • +1

                            @jv:

                            Different values back then…

                            And WTF are you on about. Murder has always been murder. Christ, you're just embarrassing.

                            Racism is the process by which systems and policies, actions and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race.
                            - THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF AUSTRALIA

                            Goodbye.

                            • @RecklessMonkeys:

                              Murder has always been murder.

                              So what about the Ukrainian soldiers killing Russian soldiers. Take them to the human rights commission ???

                              Different times, different situation

                              You seem to be triggered

                              • @jv: Whataboutism, A Red Herring, and most ironically, deflection.

                                QED.

                        • -1

                          @RecklessMonkeys: that's systemic racism, different to racism on a personal level

    • +2

      Because the $2b in discussion was a pne off Qantas only payment, not a general payment available to all; it's completely dofferent to general welfare

    • +5

      A one off $700m is absolutely insignificant compared to the tens of billions Australian taxpayers bleed in Welfare Hand Outs.

      Jesus wept at this pathetic attempt to demonise those on social benefits.

      Company posts literally a grotesque almost $2B profit but it's the people struggling to put food on their table that are the issue?

      Conservatives are the worst people, seriously.

  • I agree that they should pay it back. But Labor will let Qantas keep the money and in fact give them even more money. No strings attached at all. They don't want their 80s neoliberal decision to look bad.

    • +5

      Love that you blame Labour, but it wasn't Labour that gave the money to Qantas…..

      • Love that you blame Labour

        They're not, they are blaming Labor.

        Albo is doing his best to minimise competition and keep Qantas fares and profits high.
        I'm guessing his family members have a lot of Qantas shares…

        • +2

          Albo is doing his best to minimise competition and keep Qantas fares and profits high.

          and yet, still not the one that gave Qantas $2b+ in tax payers money.

          • -1

            @JimmyF:

            one that gave Qantas $2b+ in tax payers money.

            and pretty much everyone else too to prevent pretty much every employer from going bankrupt and shutting down their business… It wasn't just for Qantas.

            The issue now is that Albo is effectively trying to create a monopoly to increase Qantas's profit? Why? How is this benefiting Australians?
            Good for Qantas owners and the CEO though as the share price has gone from below $4 to over $6.

            One wonders what under the table kickbacks have been going on recently…

            • @jv:

              and pretty much everyone else too to prevent pretty much every employer from going bankrupt and shutting down their business… It wasn't just for Qantas.

              wrong again jv, Qantas got a 'special' handout in the billions that everyone else didn't get. Its also not the gov place to keep a business afloat if its unprofitable.

              https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/22/qantas-on-t…

              The issue now is that Albo is effectively trying to create a monopoly to increase Qantas's profit?

              Also wrong again, Qantas has always had this monopoly and regularlly blocks other players from creating new routes into Australia by crying to the gov, been happening for decades.

              One wonders what under the table kickbacks have been going on recently…

              See the link above, but that was your good friend Scumo who did that.

              • @JimmyF:

                that everyone else didn't get.

                pretty much every large company that was impacted by the shutdowns got money.

              • @JimmyF:

                Qantas has always had this monopoly and regularlly blocks other players from creating new routes into Australia

                There was more competition and more flights to Europe prior to covid.
                Qantas now has a disproportionate higher number and together with the increase in the demand, results in pretty much no discounting, hardly any reward flights and massive increases in profit… and of course, some 'benefits' for Albo and his family…

              • @JimmyF:

                your good friend Scumo

                More of a friend to you than to me…

                • @jv:

                  More of a friend to you than to me…

                  Not all, your friend.

                  pretty much every large company that was impacted by the shutdowns got money.

                  BS not to the level that Qantas got. Name another company that got $2b in tax payer money, of which most of it was under the table.

                  There was more competition and more flights to Europe prior to covid.

                  Which they fought to block and did in a lot of cases

                  Qantas now has a disproportionate higher number and together with the increase in the demand, results in pretty much no discounting, hardly any reward flights and massive increases in profit… and of course, some 'benefits' for Albo and his family…

                  LOL all things that mostly happened under the libs….. You make it sound like Scumo and his family are not part of the Qantas boys club….

                  Also why can't you reply lilke a normaly person and do it in one post!?

                  • @JimmyF:

                    BS not to the level that Qantas got.

                    Lots of companies got big handouts based on how much the shutdown impacted them.

                    • @jv:

                      Lots of companies got big handouts based on how much the shutdown impacted them.

                      So should be easy for you to name a few then that got $1b+ in tax payers money then….. Other than Qantas

                  • +1

                    @JimmyF:

                    mostly happened under the libs

                    Albo is the one stopping Qatar from bringing in more flights which would drop ticket prices.

                    • +1

                      @jv:

                      Albo is the one stopping Qatar from bringing in more flights which would drop ticket prices.

                      Govs have been limiting other airlines flights for decades to protect Qantas, nothing new here. Not that I agree with it, it isn't a new thing under Albo as you claim.

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