PROBE QANTAS MANAGEMENT CLAIMS CALL

Senator Nick Xenophon (Independent, South Australia) has said there should be a “forensic examination” of Qantas management statements about the financial state of the airline. The senator made this statement in parliament when he gave details claiming Qantas is being run down to benefit Jetstar. He believed that inside information from the Qantas Group he raised (see post below QANTAS CREATIVE ACCOUNTING; CAIRNS-DARWIN-SINGAPORE ) required serious scrutiny.

“Qantas should not be allowed to face death by a thousand cuts—job cuts, route cuts, quality cuts, engineering cuts, wage cuts. None of this is acceptable , and it must all be resisted for the sake of the pilots, the crews, the passengers and ultimately the future of our national carrier,” he told Senate.

“ I pay tribute to the 35,000 employees of the Qantas Group. At the forefront of the fight against the strategy of Qantas management have been the Qantas pilots, to whom millions of Australians have literally entrusted their lives. The Australian and International Pilots Association sees Qantas management strategy as a race to the bottom when it comes to service and safety.

“On November 8 last year, QF32 experienced a serious malfunction with the explosion of an engine on an A380 aircraft,” he continued .” In the wrong hands, that plane could have crashed. But it did not, in large part because the Qantas flight crew had been trained to exemplary world-class standards and knew how to cope with such a terrifying reality.”

Senator Xenophon went on to say : “I am deeply concerned that what is being pursued may well cause training levels to fall and as a result safety standards in the Qantas Group may fall as well.” AIPA pilots and the licensed aircraft engineers were not fighting for themselves; they were fighting for the Australian public. That was why he was deeply concerned about any action Qantas management may be considering taking against pilots who speak out in the public interest.

ABC CAT ON HOT TIN ROOF ?

Suspicious looking person on roof of ABC hidden by tree during the President Obama brief visit in which the most powerful man on the globe survived prickly heat and the fine print in his TIO insurance against crocodile attack, on close examination in Bali , was found to be in Chinese, any claim to be paid in the likely new Greek currency .

QANTAS CREATIVE ACCOUNTING ; CAIRNS -DARWIN-SINGAPORE

* How to junk an Australian airline -Senator explains .
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In a powerful speech , Senator Nick Xenophon (South Australia),raised deep concerns about the running of the national carrier , Qantas. At 90, Qantas, he said , was the world's oldest continuously running airline, an iconic Australian company,its story woven into the story of the nation (especially the Northern Territory.)

Qantas , he told parliament , was being deliberately trashed by management in the pursuit of short-term profits and at the expense of its workers and passengers. For a long time, Qantas management had been pushing the line that Qantas international was losing money and that Jetstar was profitable.

It was imperative to expose those claims as misinformation. Qantas had long been used to subsidise Jetstar in order to make Jetstar look profitable and Qantas appear a burden. He spoke of detailed allegations of cost-shifting obtained from within the Qantas Group.These set a pattern that where there was a cost to be paid, Qantas paid it , and when a profit was to be be made, Jetstar made it.

To understand that, the senator said you needed to go back to the days when Qantas was privatised. The Qantas Sale Act 1992 imposed a number of conditions, which in turn created a number of problems for any management group that wanted to "flog off" parts of the business. Basically, Qantas had to maintain its principal place of operations here in Australia, but that did not stop management selling any subsidiaries- hence Jetstar.

Qantas had systematically built up the low-cost carrier at the expense of the parent company. Senator Xenophon continued : “ I have been provided with a significant number of examples where costs which should have been billed back to Jetstar have in fact been paid for by Qantas. These are practices that I believe Qantas and Jetstar management need to explain.

“For example, when Jetstar took over the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore route, replacing Qantas flights, a deal was struck that required Qantas to provide Jetstar with $6 million a year in revenue. Why? Why would one part of the business give up a profitable route like that and then be asked to pay for the privilege?

“ Then there are other subsidies when it comes to freight. On every sector Jetstar operates an A330, Qantas pays $6200 to $6400 for freight space regardless of actual uplift. When you do the calculations, this turns out to be a small fortune. Based on 82 departures a week, that is nearly half-a-million dollars a week or $25½ million a year.

“Then there are the arrangements within the airport gates. In Melbourne, for example, my information from inside the Qantas group is that Jetstar does not pay for any gates, but instead Qantas domestic is charged for the gates. My question for Qantas management is simple: are these arrangements replicated right around Australia and why is Qantas paying Jetstar's bills?

“Why does Qantas lease five check-in counters at Sydney Terminal 2, only to let Jetstar use one for free?” he asked . There were other areas reported to him where Jetstar’s costs “magically” become Qantas's costs, including bearing the legal department costs and Jetstar pocketing rebooking on Qantas flights.

Given these extensive allegations of hidden costs, it would be foolish to take management's word that Qantas international was losing money, he added . To explain why Qantas wanted to make it look like Qantas International was losing money, he recalled the failed 2007 private equity bid by the Allco Finance Group to buy the airline . However, what was happening now effectively a strategy of private equity sell-off by stealth.

It worked this way ... Qantas had to be kept flying to avoid breaching the Qantas Sale Act but that did not stop moving assets out of Qantas and putting them into an airline that you own not controlled by the Qantas Sale Act. Then the figures were worked to make it appear as though the international arm of Qantas was losing money.

This was used to justify the slashing of jobs, maintenance standards and employment of foreign crews and, ultimately, the creation of an entirely new airlines to be based in Asia and which would not be called Qantas. The end result? Technically ,Qantas would still exist, but it would end up a shell of its former self and the Qantas Group would end up with all these subsidiaries it could base overseas using poorly paid foreign crews with engineering and safety standards that do not match Australian standards. In time, if the Qantas Group wanted to make a buck, they could “ flog these subsidiaries off ” for a tidy profit. NOTE : If there are any aviation reporters in Darwin , they could ask Qantas for an explanation about the annual $6million payment Qantas has to make to Jetstar for giving up the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore run. The NT Government should also examine this matter very closely as it has implications for the Territory .

BURMA, TOTAL AND DARWIN'S SUPINE WALL OF SILENCE

The very day Australia was first attacked by Japanese, the Army News, produced in Darwin to inform all the troops in the Territory, carried the banner headline BATTLE FOR BURMA BEGINS . In modern Darwin, the local media and government are strangely silent over the Inpex partner Total’s involvement with the current murderous Burmese regime and the plight of that country's people. Total,the world's fourth biggest oil company,and a major investor in Burma , has recently been described in the NT News as the Inpex "junior partner. "

After the Chief Minister’s recent trip to Aberdeen and Singapore ,where in the latter Lion City he was hosted by Total, the expectation was that the issue of the company’s involvement with the Burmese military regime would get an in- depth airing by the local media representatives who went along for the ride . But no. Rien. The New Guinea cargo cult attitude towards Inpex and le grande silence over Total continued. Rather than wait to be informed by the Fourth Estate about Total , Little Darwin suggests reasonable minded Territorians wanting to be informed about the issue look at the oil company’s own website http://burma.total.com/.

In it Total shows it is not afraid to face criticism of its involvement in Burma ( called Myanmar by the military thugs ), so local journos should be brave and ask meaningful questions of our politicians and company representatives about this very important matter. Total responds to what is identified at the top of its home page as THE CONTROVERSY under the heading The Allegations and Total’s response which covers court cases that include claims that forced labour was used to construct a gas pipeline in Burma , and an interview with the head of Total international PR .

As expected , their case is well crafted, but nevertheless it addresses some of the issues and reveals why Territory politicians , the media and others , if we respect the universal rule of law, democracy , support human rights and know that Burmese refugees are locked up in the Darwin detention centre, many more in Malaysia , where they are hounded by a government backed vigilante group , should be concerned and DOING SOMETHING , apart from being sucked into the well orchestrated and oiled PR machine.

Territory institutions should be airing the plight of the Burmese and using our deep involvement in the proposed INPEX-TOTAL project to try and influence the better treatment of the populace in that beleaguered country . Little Darwin is not for or against the proposed Inpex project at this stage , but does feel the public should be better informed by the media . There are numerous aspects of great importance which have not been touched by what seems to be an obsequious local media.

On the Total website is a now out of date 19 -page REPORT ON A TRIP TO MYANMAR AND DISCOVERY OF A SILENT INDUSTRY (Following the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi ), compiled by Bernard Kouchner of the French business advice firm , BK Conseil, in September 2003.It makes many surprising and powerful statements relevant to the NT today.

At first glance , the tendency is to suspect that it is going to be a PR whitewash. Then you read that Kouchner , a French politician, diplomat,doctor,co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres and a Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, wrote the foreword to the French edition of Burma :The Next Killing Fields?, by Alan Clements, which included text by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a contribution by the Dalai Lama. ( After the US President, Darwin's Channel 9 has suggested the Dalai Lama could be the next VIP to visit Darwin-would any local reporter ask him about Burma, Tibet -where nuns have been self- immolating of late ?) The situation in Burma was obvious and damning, Kouchner wrote.

From the time in 1990 when the military junta overthrew the democratically elected government , changing the name of the country to Myanmar, the notorious State Law and Order Restitution Council (SLORC)was responsible for repeated massacres , frequent torture ,disappearances and executions . Some 1200 political prisoners were still “rotting” in Myanmar prisons and some of them had been there for years. The generals were accused by specialists of all stripes of trafficking in opium from the Golden Triangle.Collaboration with this type of regime, Kouchner stated, required a political vision that oil companies generally refused to talk about ; this was a mistake. His conclusions included-

• Oil and gas are closely tied to politics - beyond the fact that they are energy resources. Oil companies are constantly in the political pot and there’s no point pretending otherwise.
• Total should clearly state the need for democracy ,without provocation,without calling a press conference , without making a lot of noise.

Kouchner said that Total had acted reasonably during the apartheid regime in South Africa . He also gave details of Total supported schemes in Burma designed to benefit sections of the community. Despite the somewhat rosy claim that the political situation was “ evolving favourably,” with Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, again moving “almost freely around the country” statement in the introduction , it is an informative document.

A small item (six paragraphs) in the NT News on July 5, headed Call to help local Burmese, quoted Darwin’s Refugee Action Coalition as saying Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who recently urged the corrupt Burmese regime to release its many political prisoners , should help free refugees languishing in Australian detention centres, including Darwin, some with refugee status waiting up to 20 months for security clearance.

The latest Human Rights Watch report from Bangkok said nothing much had changed in Burma,where the recent election was an obvious sham , designed to perpetuate the iron fisted control of the brutal generals. Large numbers of people, branded “criminals” by the illegal military regime, were being used as pack animals and human shields in minefields.

In the first of her BBC Reith Lectures , the tape smuggled out and played on the ABC, Aung San Suu Kyi, recently called for continued international pressure to help her people obtain democracy. The military had ignored her National League for Democracy (NLD) landslide victory in 1990.It was clear that many countries and people in high places respected power, even if that power was based on corruption and denial of democracy.

In answer to a question about the advantage of tourism to the people of Burma,she said most of the businesses involved were “cronies “ of the junta. (This is the same situation in respect of the Angkor Wat tourist trade in Cambodia , known as Scambodia due to the government corruption). The international community was dragging its feet. She said one of those active in the NLD office today was the elderly, veteran journalist, U Win Tim, who had spent 20 years in gaol. He had written IS THIS A HUMAN HELL ? and still wore the blue prison suit he had when incarcerated by the illegal regime. It was most important that the world be kept aware of what was happening in Burma , she added.

China, with a long track record of little respect for human rights, is extending its involvement in Burma. Incidently,China has a growing involvement in Northern Territory mining ventures. This is an opportunity for the Territory to use suasion not only on a French oil company but China as well, to try and help the long suffering Burmese . So when Health/ Fisheries/Mines Minister Kon Vatskalis makes yet another trip to Beijing flogging off the Territory, it would be nice if he raised the Burmese tragedy with his hosts over the banquet table and , more importantly, stand up in the Legislative Assembly and raise the issue of the oppressed Burmese.

It is not so long ago that Australia became a willing partner with Indonesia in the proposed plunder of East Timor’s oil reserves. Once more, the Territory seems to be turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the cries of a terribly oppressed people in the expectation of a quick buck. FOOTNOTE :Commodore Collins on the above front cover of the wartime paper was the skipper of HMAS Sydney, later sunk off WA by a German raider , the wreck only recently discovered .

OBAMA EXPOSES TIMOROUS DARWIN STAND ON BURMESE AND TOTAL

During his stirring Canberra speech before flying off to Darwin, US President, Barack Obama,specifically raised the denial of human rights in Burma. This put the NT Chief Minister, Paul Henderson ,the Darwin media and others in the hotseat. Questions submitted by Little Darwin to Paul Henderson about Burma have gone unanswered. This was the original request sent to the Chief Minister via his staffer, Fred McCue, on October 9:

For the record , has the Chief Minister at any stage discussed with Total , a partner in the proposed Inpex project, the plight of Burma, its people under the brutal control of the illegal, internationally condemned military junta? As you know , Total , with Chevron(US) and PTTEP (Thailand- the Montara spill ) Oil and Gas Enterprise ( the Burmese military ), is involved in the gas pipeline from the Andaman Sea to Thailand,construction of which is said to have involved forced labour,land seizure,oppression of the populace, resulting in international court cases.

Incredibly, the Darwin media has not raised Total’s involvement in Burma when reporting the proposed Inpex project, which seems a gross dereliction of duty and lack of basic journalistic practice.

There are Burmese refugees in Darwin’s immigration detention centre,we have a Burmese community here and there are many Burmese refugees in Malaysia, many of whom could be placed in the Territory, if the Australian government’s offshore processing goes ahead. It would therefore seem even more desirable that the NT Government make an attempt to influence the deplorable situation in Burma.

Aung San Suu Ki,in her recent lectures, stated that support for democracy in Burma by other democracies strengthens democracy globally. A joint statement in the NT Legislative Assembly outlining its concern for the people of Burma and a call for the Inpex partners to use their influence on the Burmese regime to try and improve the lot of the Burmese populace is surely desirable . Is there any chance that such a move will be made by the CM? - Peter Simon.

Despite several requests for a reply, there was none. The grande silence now has a gaseous petite twist,which you will see near the end of this post . The Chief Minister certainly did not take the opportunity to show a skerrick of statesmanship and concern by raising the matter at the last sittings of the Legislative Assembly. Strangely, the Northern Territory News has suddenly started referring to Total as the Inpex “junior partner”. Now that the US president has raised the issue, the local media must ask pertinent,REAL questions of the Chief Minister,other local politicians, and last, but not least , TOTAL and INPEX.

MARINES,CHINESE, BURLEIGH AND SANTA INVADE DARWIN !!!!

Brilliant cartoonist and wordsmith,Peter Burleigh, is back from a reformed Hemingway-like safari across North Australia , during which he shot no elephants and survived close encounters with UFOs, crocodiles , incredible thirst , dust, flies, bulldust artists galore and swarms of grey nomads. Burleigh has had his talented sketching digits up Darwin way since 1969 when he drew the above cartoon of Australia's frontline defence base , which was regarded as something of a joke in those days . Modern Darwin now bristles with jets, troops, tanks, warships and when they solve the little problem of invading feral wallabies closing the Tindal Air Force runway, no foreign power had better try and make a sneak attack. We are ready-Monday to Fridays ! Now in an amazing stroke of luck for Little Darwin readers across the globe, Burleigh, with media barons clamouring to sign him up, has kindly agreed to supply us with part of his latest grand road trip series - The BULLDUST DIARIES. Readers will recall his recent memorable articles on a night at the Paris Opera and misadventures in a Bedford van on the London to Marrakesh run which nearly sparked several international incidents that could have resulted in the incarceration in a dank dungeon of three of our finest , upstanding (at times) , young Australian brains.

YANKS ARE COMING - LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS AND BANANAS

Dragging a spear behind him, American-trained Moroccan monkey scuba diver learning the Australian crawl for manoeuvres in the croc infested Mitchell Street swampy bayou.
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WASHINGTON: A top secret American military squad , similar to the famous Navy Seals who knocked off Osama bin Laden , will be based in Darwin to protect the populace from marauding baby crocodiles which terrify the local media . It will consist of at least 2000 Moroccan monkeys armed with spearguns, all wearing Speedo budgie smugglers, like the Mad Monk .

As a member of the coalition of the willing ( and misled) in the Iraq invasion , Morocco , short on firepower , offered President George Dubya Bush the services of a whole troupe of performing monkeys. Fond of animals , the president made the monkeys his pet project , going under the code name Operation Prime Mates . He ordered the monkeys be driven in a fleet of stretch limos to a hush hush military base in North Carolina and armed with spearguns for swinging underwater action.

When Bush visited the base, with six shipping containers of Texan crushed nuts and banana flakes as Thanksgiving gifts , he received some disturbing news. It seems many of the simians , armed with spearguns, had gone AWOL.They were cavorting in nearby forests and breeding like rabbits. Drunk on moonshine they found in illegal stills , they began to terrorise the state

It was thought vice president Dick Cheney would be called in to cull the dangerous monkeys, but he was too busy taking potshots at his close friends with an AK-47.

A warning went out to all motorists heading for Disney Land not to stop at any public toilets in the North Carolina bush as they could be attacked by drunken feral monkeys, gorging themselves on bananas and randomly firing spearguns. This caused an outbreak of bladder infections and the Chinese ended up buying Disney Land for a song and a bag of fortune cookies way past their use by date .

On hearing that President Obama was going to visit Down Under Darwin, the terrified governor of North Carolina, with so many spears sticking in him that he looks all the world like a porcupine or a survivor of the Zulu Wars , obtained White House approval for all the dangerous monkeys to be rounded up, sedated and put aboard Air Force 1, disguised as the travelling media circus. They will be left behind in Darwin , go into residence in special cages being built at Robertson Barracks and Coonawarra . Extensive training and underwater mock attacks on made in China blow up crocs will be carried out in the city’s wave pool. All giggling fat ladies who regularly float about on inflated rubber tyres in the wave pool –like those jovial women in old saucy British seaside postcards- have been warned to take up line dancing or macramé once the jibbering Yanks take the plunge .

The monkeys will be under the command of Major Will Ferrell ,who famously carried out secret tests for the US Army on how to become invisible- enabling you to walk through walls- and how to kill goats just by glaring at them. Major Ferrell received 20 Purple Hearts for numerous facial injuries received attempting to dash through brick walls and another high decoration for the loss of three fingers, bitten off by a drunken billgoat who objected to being stared at in a nightclub frequented by Servicemen on R and R . Con the fruiterer has warned that the price of bananas will skyrocket in Darwin due to the huge demand for the fruit by the large American squad .