Qantas board docks $9m from Alan Joyce’s pay
Elias Visontay
The Qantas board has decided to cut the final pay packet of the former CEO Alan Joyce by $9.26m, after a tumultuous final year in charge of the carrier that included a string of legal scandals that led to his early exit.
Calls to hold Joyce accountable for the damage to the Qantas brand had been mounting since last year, when his final $21.4m in total earnings for the 2022-23 year were revealed.
However, the board withheld $10.5m pending the potential for it to determine clawback provisions in light of concerns with his performance.
The Qantas board has released a statement announcing its decision to dock him 100% of shares held on the Long Term Incentive Plan from 2021-23, valued at $8.36m.
The board has also decided on a 33% reduction to his short term incentive, valued at about $900,000. That includes a previously announced 20% reduction.
Other executives leading Qantas during the same time will also take a 33% reduction to their paypackets.
Key events
Advocacy group welcomes 15% wage increase for childcare workers as ‘historic’
Advocacy group The Parenthood, which is working to highlight the flow-on effects of poor childcare access, has welcomed a 15% wage increase for early childhood educators as “historic”.
CEO Georgie Dent said in a statement the move was good news for both educators and parents struggling with the cost of living:
This has been decades in the making and is a victory for every early childhood educator and teacher – past, present and aspiring, as well as children and families.
It is also momentous for gender equity as it directly addresses the chronic undervaluing of a highly feminised workforce, and bolsters a critical enabler of women’s workforce participation.
Dent said the pay rise would help stem the loss of early educators who are leaving in record numbers, because they cannot afford to cover their own cost of living.
Record staff vacancies in early education have been felt particularly keenly in regional, rural and remote areas with early learning services either closing altogether or reducing numbers.
Qantas review found “considerable harm” caused under Joyce term
Elias Visontay
A self-launched review into the governance of Qantas over the period that led to legal scandals and the trashing of its brand has found there was “considerable harm” caused under the leadership of former CEO Alan Joyce.
In the governance report released today as the Qantas board announced it would dock Joyce’s paypacket in the 2022-23 financial year by $9.26m and other senior executives by 33%, the airline acknowledged the magnitude of what went wrong.
The events that damaged Qantas and its reputation and caused considerable harm to relationships with customers, employees and other stakeholders were due to a number of factors.
It noted the financial hit from legal action from the consumer watchdog – related to selling tickets to thousands of flights it had already cancelled in its internal system – had led to a settlement costing Qantas $100m in penalties and $20m in compensation costs. Additionally, the airline is bracing to incur significant costs – some have estimated in excess of $100m – in compensation for ground handlers it was found to have illegally dismissed during the pandemic.
The review found that a “top down” culture at Qantas meant other leaders felt they couldn’t “speak up” to challenge Joyce over controversial decisions.
There was too much deference to a long-tenured CEO who had endured and overcome multiple past operational and financial crises.
This included the company’s tendency, under Joyce, to “often had an adversarial approach to engagement with key stakeholders and external communications”. The review also found that the Qantas board “was financially, commercially and strategically oriented”, and recommended in the future this focus “should be complemented by enhanced focus on non-financial issues, employees, customers and all stakeholders”.
Amy Remeikis
Greens say government’s child care pay announcement doesn’t go far enough
The government’s big announcement this morning is a 15% increase over two years for early childhood educators, funded by the government.
The pay boost means an average educator receiving the award wage will receive an extra $103 a week from December this year, which will increase to $155 a week by December next year, with the $3.6bn package being phased in over two years.
To be eligible for the money, which has to be entirely given to staff, through a pay rise, child care centre operators have to commit to not increasing their fees above 4.4% over the next 12 months, from today.
Greens early childhood education spokesperson Steph Hodgins-May says the increase doesn’t go far enough; the Greens want the government to commit to the union’s original request of a 25% increase.
This is a workforce in crisis. For too long, educators have been underpaid and as a result are leaving the industry in droves.
Labor must commit to going that step further and paying our educators what they’ve been calling for and what they deserve, for doing the most important work imaginable – educating and caring for our kids.
Tony Burke aware of the word ‘Aotearoa’ since 1980s thanks to Split Enz song
Amy Remeikis
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Luxon, might need to scrub up on his knowledge of his country’s musical impact on Australia in the 1980s if his latest comments are anything to go by.
AAP reports Luxon defended the removal of the Māori language, known as te reo Māori, from an official invitation to Tony Burke from Aotearoa’s cultural minister, Paul Goldsmith.
You can read more here, but Luxon defended Goldsmith’s instruction to officials to remove the greeting tena koe (meaning hello), the signoff nāku noa, na (which became yours sincerely) and the Māori name for New Zealand, Aotearoa.
Goldsmith said he didn’t think Burke would understand what Aotearoa meant and thought, “Let’s just keep it simple”.
Responding to questions from the NZ opposition about it in question time, Luxon joked that “in my dealings with Australians it always pays to be incredibly simple”. Burke, though, said he has known the word since he was 13.
I learned the word in 1982 thanks to Split Enz including a reference in the lyrics to Six Months in a Leaky Boat.
The Split Enz hit peaked at No 2 in the Australian charts that year, and ended 1982 as the 18th biggest song overall. The group referenced their homeland in the third stanza:
Aotearoa, rugged individual, glisten like a pearl, at the bottom of the world.
Qantas board docks $9m from Alan Joyce’s pay
Elias Visontay
The Qantas board has decided to cut the final pay packet of the former CEO Alan Joyce by $9.26m, after a tumultuous final year in charge of the carrier that included a string of legal scandals that led to his early exit.
Calls to hold Joyce accountable for the damage to the Qantas brand had been mounting since last year, when his final $21.4m in total earnings for the 2022-23 year were revealed.
However, the board withheld $10.5m pending the potential for it to determine clawback provisions in light of concerns with his performance.
The Qantas board has released a statement announcing its decision to dock him 100% of shares held on the Long Term Incentive Plan from 2021-23, valued at $8.36m.
The board has also decided on a 33% reduction to his short term incentive, valued at about $900,000. That includes a previously announced 20% reduction.
Other executives leading Qantas during the same time will also take a 33% reduction to their paypackets.
No plans to change Queensland’s public service WFH policy
There will be no changes to public servant hybrid work arrangements in Queensland, AAP reports, with contrasting views between premier Steven Miles and his New South Wales counterpart.
Miles has flagged the Queensland government has no impetus to change current flexible working arrangements for the public sector. It follows comments from the NSW premier, Chris Minns, who said a return to office and face-to-face work was a “long time coming”, four-years after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Queensland – the most decentralised state in the nation – will not adopt the same route, with Miles backing flexibility in public service work.
We don’t have any plans at this stage to change the current arrangements.
I understand New South Wales is in a somewhat different position to Queensland. Our economy continues to be strong, our CBD has come back more strongly and, of course, as of this week, we’re starting to see public transport usage closer to those pre-Covid levels.
Those arrangements are generally based on negotiations in each workplace and based on the needs of each workplace.
Workplace relations minister says HSU leader Diana Asmar should stand down
The workplace relations minister, Murray Watt, was on ABC RN just earlier and said legislation to force the administration process of the CFMEU – if it formally objects – is “very close to being ready.”
If we do have to introduce legislation next week, I would obviously be expecting the support of the Coalition, the Greens and all the cross bench, because this is something that people have been saying they want action on, and we now have an opportunity to do that.
Watt said that when the legislation is ready, he would be willing to brief Michaelia Cash, or whoever the opposition would like him to, before legislation is introduced.
The Health Services Union has also called for its Victorian leader Diana Asmar to stand aside, facing claims her branch spent more than $3m of members’ money on “ghost” services. Asmar denies the claims.
Watt said it “would be the right thing to do” for her to stand down, saying:
The whole way I’m approaching both of these issues, the CFMEU and the HSU, this is not about taking down unions. This is about taking down people who are letting down their members and the union movement overall.
Female NSW police officer charged with domestic violence offences
A female New South Wales police officer has been charged with alleged domestic violence offences.
In July, officers in the northern region started an investigation into alleged domestic violence offences that occurred earlier this year, NSW police said in a statement last night.
A 40-year-old woman was issued a court attendance notice yesterday for eight counts of common assault (DV), two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (DV) and destroying or damaging property (DV).
She is due to face Byron Bay local court on 8 October. The officer has been suspended with pay, the statement said.
New battery crackdown in NSW after 50 blazes this year
E-bikes, e-scooters, hoverboards and e-skateboards will have to meet new product standards in NSW to halt a rising number of dangerous blazes, AAP reports.
Lithium-ion battery-related fires, including those caused by low-quality batteries in e-mobility devices, are the fastest-growing type of fires in NSW, with one every four days this year, the state government says.
In one blaze north of Sydney, two people died after a battery exploded in March.
Meanwhile, a coroner in July found a Queensland man died from burns to most of his body after a lithium-ion battery fire erupted in an e-scooter connected to an incompatible charger in 2022.
The NSW fair trading minister, Anoulack Chanthivong, said today:
We’re acting ahead of other jurisdictions because unregulated products are posing a huge risk to property and, in some cases, lives.
Under the new regime beginning in February 2025, products sold in NSW will need to meet a set of internationally accepted product standards and be appropriately tested and certified before they enter the market. New testing, certification and labelling requirements will be introduced in a staged process.
National Allyship Summit to take place in Wollongong today
The first ever National Allyship Summit will take place in Wollongong today, mapping the next steps for the future of the Uluru statement from the heart.
Led by the Fred Hollows Foundation, ANTAR and Oxfam, and backed by a coalition of more than 300 member organisations, the Allies for Uluru aims to champion action that supports the aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, articulated in the Uluru statement.
Allies for Uluru have partnered with the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre at the University of Wollongong, with the summit aiming to foster meaningful dialogue, build relationships, and inspire action towards justice and equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In a statement earlier this week, the ANTAR national director, Blake Cansdale, said: “We say to our allies, stay the course and keep walking with us towards truth and justice.”
Uluru dialogue co-chair Pat Anderson said: “I am grateful for the support of the allies at this summit, both pre and post referendum.”
The need for First Nations recognition and representation was urgent on 14 October and is still urgent now. By working together, I hope we will be able to resurface the spirit of belonging and generosity that sits at the heart of the Uluru statement and chart a path forward to a better future for all Australians. Looking forward to yarning on the 8th.
Prime minister receives community note on X for cost of living post
Anthony Albanese has received a community note on X for a post attempting to highlight the government’s cost of living measures.
The post featured a CD cover mock-up titled “So helpful: Cost of living relief – Winter 2024” in reference to the 2000s album series, “So Fresh”.
It listed a number of cost of living measures the government has announced, including paid prac for students, increased rent assistance, cheaper medicine, paid parental leave “… and so much more!”
But, as the community note mentioned, many of the policies do not full come into effect until much later than winter 2024. The community note reads:
Paid prac for students doesn’t start until July 2025. More paid parental leave will be phased in by 2026. Only $75 of the $300 power bill relief will be paid by winter 2024.
Taylor asked to outline areas opposition would propose funding cuts
Host Patricia Karvelas has been questioning Angus Taylor on what the opposition would chose to cut public spending on. He responded:
The key here is not slash and burn. The key here is to make sure your economy grows faster than your spending. That is the fiscal strategy.
He wouldn’t give specifics on where cuts could be expected under the opposition, despite multiple questions from Karvelas, suggesting that spending needed to be pared back on “multiple fronts.”
Taylor did state “we don’t need corporate welfare initiatives” and spoke against the addition of 36,000 Canberra-based public servants – seemingly referencing Labor’s Future Made in Australia plan.
Would the opposition look to cut back money on infrastructure spending? Taylor responded:
Well, I’m not going to announce all of our policies now on your program. We’ll do that in good time in the lead-up to the election.
Taylor declines to immediately support 15% childcare pay rise
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, has been speaking with ABC RN after news the government will fund a 15% pay rise for childcare workers.
Asked if he supported the move, he said the opposition would work its way through the specifics and responded:
We want to see higher real wages for all Australians right now, and we know the primary way to achieve that is to beat inflation … And if we’ve got a situation with real wages going backwards – which it has been the case for Australians since Labor came to power – then we’re not getting the outcome …
The principle of higher real wages for all Australians is one we will always support, but you can’t achieve that if prices continue to go up at the rate they have been.
Australia achieves best result for a single Olympic day with six-medal haul
Wednesday will go down as one of the greatest days in Australia’s Olympics history, as Matt Wearn, Keegan Palmer, the men’s track cycling pursuit team and Nina Kennedy all won gold.
The six-medal haul (including two bronze) was easily Australia’s best for a single Olympic day – and it took the team to a total of 18 gold medals, 12 silvers and 11 bronze, a total of 41 and the best return in the country’s history.
Catch all the details of what you missed overnight below, from our sports editor, Mike Hytner, in Paris: