Qantas - Macquarie Bank's Own Airline

In a recent doorstop interview John Howard said in relation to Qantas "the Government should not make decisions on the worth or otherwise of individual commercial transactions."

Oh, no? Supposing those transactions mean selling off part of Australia.

The so-called legally enforceable undertakings attached to the Qantas deal are  not worth the paper they're written on, as they depend on the motivation of a Government to enforce them, and can be fought out in court cases that will be made to drag on forever by people with unlimited funds at their disposal.

Remember, the new owners will be only interested in the bottom line and there is no guarantee that the good name of Qantas, its Australian image, its safety record, even its name could not be dispensed with, if it would increase that bottom line.

This is because the consortium are not true aviation men, but simply  a pack of sharks out to make a quick dollar.

The Qantas deal should be seen in the context of the "funny money" economic philosphy of deregulation and globalization that has seen the sell off of our assets, our identity and our country at an accelerating pace over the last 30 years, under both Labor and the Coalition.

Let's chuck the lot out.