How I got a Qantas refund in three months

It took the privacy officer three weeks to get in touch. I was told “we’ve received your request and will send the information, but it looks like you have a pending complaint. I have listened to the calls in regards to your complaint and we accept responsibility and would like to give you a full refund. Are you ok with that and will you still need the recordings?”

I took the refund and moved on. Turns out they also forgot to charge me the cancellation fee.

Sam Rahmanian, Surry Hills, NSW

AFR subscriptions for the board

With Alan Joyce’s immediate departure from Qantas, and news of the board’s determination to restore the company’s battered reputation, might we suggest again providing the AFR in Qantas Clubs as a tangible symbol of change?

Better yet, an AFR subscription for each board member. An early read of Joe Aston’s writings on Qantas over the last several years might have prevented this sad decline of our once-great airline.

Kerry M Bell, Jandakot WA

Can we ease off on Alan Joyce please?

Responsibility for the travelling public lies with state and federal ministers of transport. Alan Joyce was not responsible for tourism for which we also have several ministers.

He is not an advocate for Qantas staff for which there are unions and processes set by the Fair Work Act. The system requires Joyce to diligently act to maximise his pay in line with the incentives provided by the Qantas board. The Qantas board is required to manage the company to maximise the return to shareholders.

Qantas ceased to be a national carrier when it was privatised in 1993. If some people, who should know better, believed that Qantas is a national carrier, then this is a tribute to how Joyce managed the company’s government and public relations.

Joyce is a very clever and capable manager who behaved exactly as expected of the CEO of a multinational airline.

Gerry O’Reilly, Camberwell, Vic

Qantas board needs to get out of the lounge

The litany of problems facing Qantas raises a number of yellow and red flags that go to governance and the board’s exercise of an inquiring mind and the setting of the organisation’s culture.

It is to be hoped that the problems are contained and that the board is exercising its enquiring mind when it comes to the safe operation of an airline.

If Qantas, through its board, is so disengaged from its passengers and shows an inventive approach to accounting practices and bonuses, it is fair to ask how that impacts on culture and the full engagement of its workforce, at all levels, in delivering an efficient, profitable and safe airline service.

The board, and not just the chairman, needs to get out of the chairman’s lunge and step up.

Joanna Wriedt, Eaglemont, VIC

Why should the government provide Qantas support?

The mind-boggling behaviours of Qantas continuing to sell tickets on cancelled flights may well offer Anthony Albanese a way out of the dilemma his decision to reject the Qatar application for additional access to major Australian cities has created. (And whether he personally made the decision or not, he must accept ultimate responsibility for it).

If we, the travelling public, can no longer trust this organisation, why should the government continue to provide almost limitless support? It can be argued that more competition would be the most effective way to stimulate an improvement in customer service and honesty. Promises to get its house in order are clearly worthless.

Albanese now has a “Joyce” sent opportunity to revisit the Qatar decision, triggered by the ACCC commencing action against this progressively more reviled organisation.

By continuing to blindly support Qantas, Albanese risks condemnation by association. He may tolerate this risk but for how long will the Labor caucus which will start to anticipate with increasing nervousness the next election?

John Onto, Hawthorn East, Vic

Yes or No, please vote in the referendum

Recent polls suggest that people favouring a No outcome for the Voice referendum are more likely than Yes supporters to simply not cast a vote in the referendum.

This could be because they simply don’t trust politicians, they are sick and tired of the way in which this referendum is dividing our wonderful country, or they think the referendum is totally unnecessary and a gigantic waste of money, when ordinary Australians are under extreme economic pressure.

I implore all eligible Australians to cast their vote in this crucial vote, as the outcome of the referendum could have major ramifications for all Australians, not just Indigenous Australians. If you are contemplating not voting, please rethink and be part of our wonderful democratic system. Many countries are not blessed with such democratic rights and obligations.

Adrian Hassett, Vermont, Vic

If you don’t know, go and find out

As the campaigns on the Voice referendum enter into overdrive, one can only marvel at how opponents can conjure up all the complexities that simply do not exist. It was the same when the Wik decision was made.

People were going to be setting up in our backyards once Aboriginal land rights were recognised. It was the same when the apology to the stolen generation was given. The naysayers claimed huge reparations would follow. None of these things eventuated.

Without any fuss, countries such as New Zealand and Canada have accommodated their indigenous folk into their constitutions. Yet the people of yesteryear insist on holding us back. Eighty-four-year-old John Howard tells us to maintain the rage, Tony Abbott preaches race division and Scott Morrison says the Voice will make no difference to the plight of Indigenous Australians. Now we hear that the Chinese Communist Party is sponsoring disinformation on the Voice.

It’s a simple proposition really. These people, who have been here three hundred times as long as the rest of us, are asking for recognition, the right to consult and the opportunity to find a better way to improve their lives. To those who pose the slogan “if you don’t know, say no”, I say if you don’t know, find out. It’s not rocket science.

Frank Carroll, Moorooka, Qld

Howard diminishes himself

Sad to see John Howard exercising the same poor judgment and belligerence in relation to the Voice referendum he demonstrated in the illegal detention of David Hicks.

Helping our fellow Australians who need it most by implementing a method whereby they may be heard is anything but divisive. It is hard to believe the man who brought truly inspired gun reform has been so diminished as to spout the thinly veiled racism his No case constitutes.

Martin Bell, Balgowlah, NSW