Posted by Last night’s Q+A was awesome. It covers Qantas, the media, political engagement, and what constitutes a worthy life. It is well worth your hour.
Kate Ellis is pretty, but that wasn’t enough to distract from the incoherence of her arguments (to be fair, they are her Party’s arguments). On Qantas, she denied the logic of the market, but on the media delivered a thoughtful few lines on supply meeting demand.
Folks want cheaper air-travel, and that’s why there is pressure on Qantas to reduce their cost base. The Government’s Orwellian ‘Fair Work Act’ makes it more expensive to operate in Australia, so Qantas is moving offshore. It’s easy to understand.
Seeing this junk, it’s hard to believe there was once a great generation of ALP leaders (Keating, Kelty, Carr) who clearly understood that the best job security is a competitive and profitable employer.
Getting folks high paying jobs isn’t just good economics, it’s good politics.
ricardian ambivalence 
If the Fair work act was the problem then Virgin couldn’t have done what they negotiated.
Qantas is the outlier and probably because Management has little credibility with their workforce.