Qantas chair John Mullen takes swipe at airline’s Voice support and warns corporate bosses against lecturing

New Qantas chair John Mullen has blasted corporate Australia’s support of the Voice campaign and warned directors against going too far in their support of “worthy causes”.

In a barely disguised swipe at the airline’s former top brass, Mr Mullen said companies did themselves no favours by “campaigning so actively” for the ‘Yes’ vote in the unsuccessful Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum on 2023.

“I think that many people from all walks of life saw corporate Australia’s position as lecturing and telling people what to do from a position of assumed moral superiority,” Mr Mullen said on Tuesday.

“I don’t actually think that it was so much about whether one was for or against the Voice. People don’t like to be told by others what they should think or what they should do going forward.”

Mr Mullen, who took over as Qantas chair from Richard Goyder in September last year, made the comments in the keynote address to the Australian Institute of Company Directors governance conference in Sydney.

The Qantas board is grappling with an array of issues after 16 years with hard-nosed chief executive Alan Joyce in charge, including a $120 million damages bill for an outsourcing program found by courts to have breached the Fair Work Act.

The airline is also embarking on a long overdue refresh of its fleet but is battling to get new aircraft, resulting in it having to delay planned expansions, leasing aircraft from other airlines and renovating interiors of ageing jets.

When asked about the way forward for Qantas, Mr Mullen said it remained one of the “most successful airlines in the world” after “two difficult years”.

“Without in any way downplaying any of the bad things that happened, you need to draw a line in the sand and move on,” he said. “So that’s what we’re focusing on. There’s still a lot more work to be done.”

He said new chief executive Vanessa Hudson led a “great management team”. “She’s not a chip off the old block of the past, good or bad,” he said.

The board and management had a huge responsibility because Qantas was part of the fabric of Australia.

“There’s an absolute requirement on us to get our act together and make sure that it becomes a respective brand — for the company and its for shareholders, but also for the nation,” he said.

“I think Qantas is starting to get its its mojo back.”