Cynics will say it is just a coincidence that Qantas sacked its longest-serving board member a few days after I questioned his competence in this column. It is certainly true that under the stewardship of the man who appointed him to that board, our national carrier would not have promoted anyone with conservative sympathies above the rank of baggage handler, and that the likelihood of anyone in Alan Joyce’s management team even smuggling a copy of this magazine into work in their briefcase were about the same as them galloping across the Mascot campus in a white robe and hood. But since Mr Joyce’s departure last year, and in light of the misgovernance he oversaw, and the consequent collapse of customer trust and falling profits (for which failings his $23 million departure package was reduced by $9m – surely the loudest wrist slap in Australian corporate history), it is not unreasonable to suppose that current CEO Vanessa Hudson is keen not to be seen to be emulating any aspect of her predecessor’s management style, including his banning from Qantas spaces of any publication or TV network which gave him less than flattering coverage. But even if I could afford to fly business class, my Star Alliance frequent flyer membership would preclude me from using Qantas lounges, so I must leave it to other Speccie readers to find out if complimentary copies of the magazine can now be found there.

Qantas is not the only iconic Australian brand Alan Joyce devalued. There is nothing on his Wikipedia page to suggest that he was a passionate supporter of rugby union before becoming CEO of what was then the Wallabies’ principal sponsor. But it does say that he is a gay man who grew up in a country where homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1993. So it’s hardly surprising that he would be a supporter of same-sex marriage and a very vocal one in the run up to our 2017 plebiscite. But this also meant that two years later he would be a very vocal critic of arguably the Wallabies’ best player. A man who, when he wasn’t scoring try after brilliant try in the green and gold, also happened to be a devout Christian given to paraphrasing New Testament passages in his social media posts. I am sure Mr Joyce never told Rugby Australia that Qantas’s continued sponsorship of the Wallabies depended on them kicking Israel Folau into touch because of what some had characterised as homophobic hate speech. But it’s hard to believe Rugby Australia would have terminated the contract of their highest-scoring back only four months out from a World Cup if they didn’t believe that not doing so would jeopardise their relationship with Qantas. Folau was by no means the only Christian playing rugby at the elite level in Australia at the time, and his dismissal angered many in the Pacific Island communities which are now increasingly the talent pools for our top clubs and regional franchises. So it was a Pyrrhic victory for Australia’s wokest CEO and one which left him with the dilemma faced so often by so many on the left: championing one minority will almost always alienate another. Whether in anticipation of more Christian controversy, or simply because he didn’t want his brand to be linked to a team going through a bit of a losing streak, Mr Joyce ended Qantas’s 30-year Wallaby sponsorship in 2020, when Rugby Australia were already struggling to stem the outgoing tide of talent to higher paying European and Japanese clubs and league. When the Wallabies failed to make it out of the group stage of the next Rugby World Cup – an unprecedented ‘last straw’ humiliation for many Aussie union fans – much of the blame was laid at the door of coach Eddie Jones and Rugby Australia chief Hamish McLennan. But many insiders believe that the problems both men were trying to solve began with the destabilising effect of Joyce’s withdrawal of Qantas’s sponsorship. We can only hope that Cadbury, the sponsor who stepped into the breach, will learn from this and not add to Wallaby woes by embracing more causes and courting more controversy. At least they had the sense to make sure that the artist who was asked to add an Aboriginal motif to the Wallaby jersey was a First Nations artist. I fear the same cannot be said about all the people responsible for Qantas’s most eye-catching fuselage designs.