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25 August, 2023

Qantas won’t have to pay back COVID aid despite enormous profit, treasurer says

Despite Qantas Group reporting an after tax profit of $1.74 billion yesterday, the treasurer Jim Chalmers said that the company won’t have to pay back money it received during the pandemic.

The group received $2.7b from taxpayers during the pandemic, including $900m from JobKeeper program. At the time Qantas Group’s CEO Alan Joyce said that the airline was 11 weeks away from bankruptcy.

Chalmers said that the profits reported by Qantas showed that the travel industry is bouncing back.

“When those funds were provided by the previous government, there wasn’t an understanding or an agreement that they would be repaid in some form,” he told ABC Radio.

“What (the profits) reflect is the fact the Australian tourism industry is making a big contribution to our economy and that’s a good thing.

“It’s a big employer in our economy.”

Speaking to ABC’s 7.30, Joyce said that the money the group received for JobKeeper went to its employees.

Alan Joyce speaking on 7.30 (ABC)

“As we’re making money, we’ll pay corporation tax and getting there faster,” he said.

“Should our people who got the money for JobKeeper pay that back?

“I’d say no because that’s asking them to pay it back in a difficult period of time, so what money do we pay back exactly?”

The Qantas Group boss has been personally summoned to appear before court next week in an inquiry into the group’s role in impacting cost of living pressures.

This will be the first time in nine years that the CEO will appear before the senate.

Joyce is the only CEO of an ASX-listed company called to appear amid the recent rise in cost of living pressures.

Qantas Groups attributes its massive profit to $1 billion recovery program (launched in the first year of those losses), a 132 per cent increase in flying compared with FY22 and strong travel demand driving higher revenue.

This has drawn backlash from the Transport Workers Union’s (TWU) national secretary Michael Kaine who described the profit as “shameful”.

“This is $2.5 billion of dirty money reaped from illegal outsourcing, overzealous redundancies, price-gouging, hoarding cancellation refunds, and the decimation of service standards,” Kaine said.

“Qantas owes a great debt to the Australian public. Every dollar of profit reported today should refund the public purse. If Qantas won’t pay it back, it should at the very least return quality jobs and service standards to the once-trusted airline.”

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