The word 'basketcase' does not begin to describe Qantas

"The nation (that is, us)" appears to be the government's mantra because it didn't help any of the individuals that make up the nation.

Giant moneybag acquired

Getting a corporate onside for your favourite campaigns seems like a good deal for the government, but what if consumers see the truth-they are subsidising the government?

And see the truth they do.

Qantas needs to take the advertising for The Voice off those three planes if they want to help the Yes campaign or hangar the planes for the duration because all most Australians see is big government cronyism, not reconciliation.

For shareholders, the joke (on them) is that over the entirety of Mr. Joyce's 10-year incumbency, the combined profits and losses basically net out. Yet Mr. Joyce's pay packets have been stratospheric-the only thing to be stratospheric in the entire operation apart from the jetliners.

Oh, and there's this year's profit, which at $1.7 billion strikes the average Aussie as stratospheric and at their expense, although for shareholders it was a long overdue pint of Guinness.

As for Mr. Joyce, he got a year's pay packet worth around $24 million. The size is partly due to his deferring $6.8 million worth of incentives during the pandemic years, a period when the airline posted statutory losses of $6.8 billion. Pure gall and public relations.

To be fair, airlines are a tricky business. There is prestige for some nations in having their own national airlines, Wikipedia lists 107 of them, with barely a first-world country there, apart from Canada and New Zealand.

So a number of airlines are subsidised by foreign governments, which means that when it comes to international flights, rich Australians are subsidised by poor foreigners. This is not good for foreigners but very good for rich Australians, and nothing would be changed if we restrained our overseas travel.

However, it is financially poisonous for Australian domestic airlines flying internationally, like Qantas, as they have to keep shareholders, not autocrats, happy.

Capital costs to hit like a truck

Presumably, governments that own airlines think they are getting a good deal, and possibly they are because they get to keep whatever profits are made.

Australia seems to be getting the worst of both worlds.