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By Root 301 0

standing to make a lot of money was Chief Financial Officer Peter Gregg, who already earned $3.7 million a year. He was in line to trouser a bonus of $5 million if the deal to put 100 per cent of Qantas into private hands went through. Gregg was a fishing buddy of Mark Carnegie, from airline advisor Carnegie Wylie, who also stood to pocket a large part of the $96 million success fee if the bid went through. Gregg was most put out to be asked about his relationship with Carnegie at the 2007 Qantas Annual General Meeting. He told shareholder activist Stephen Mayne:

I like to fish and I regularly fish when I can get the opportunity. Yes, I did go fishing with Mark Carnegie a number of months after the deal collapsed, but I also do a lot of other things with Mark Carnegie like aiding him in some of the charities he is involved with for Indigenous children and for children in overseas depressed countries, so I make no apologies of going fishing, but I do reject any insinuation that I did something that was illegal or under cover in this process. I don’t think you have any right to make that suggestion.8

The APA bid had to get through a number of hurdles. The Foreign Investment Review Board had to give it the green light to ensure it did not breach the 49 per cent foreign owner ship specified in the Qantas Sale Act. An independent review of the Qantas business conducted by investment bank Grant Samuel endorsed the directors’ decision to sell, saying any offer over $5.18 a share was ‘fair value’.9 And Prime Minister John Howard weighed in to say that although there were ‘understandable concerns’ about the sale, it would bring about a ‘savage reaction’ from business if the government interfered. ‘I understand the view that [Qantas] is an icon but the personal views of the prime minister, the treasurer or senior ministers shouldn’t be allowed in a free enterprise economy to influence who owns companies provided the law is observed and the rules are obeyed,’ he said, effectively conceding that there was a great deal of public disquiet about the sale. ‘You can’t determine the ownership of companies and affect the right of people to deal with their property, namely their shares, according to the popularity of a particular takeover. You just can’t operate that way,’ he said. 10

Treasurer Peter Costello had warned that companies such as Qantas should ignore excessive debt so that they could ride out any ‘external shocks’ that might hit the economy. But once he received the Foreign Investment Review Board recommendations he removed any government objection to the deal. After being given the assurance that the new owners would not cull regional services, he said: ‘The Government is not recommending this bid. The Government will allow shareholders to make their decision.’11 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel also said his organisation had been through the deal with ‘more than a fine tooth comb’ and found nothing to stop it going ahead.12 The Commission had considered whether Macquarie’s interests in Sydney airport and a new holding in Qantas would lead it to favour the airline but found that there was no incentive for it to do so.

The unions were not happy. A Senate inquiry was looking into whether the Qantas sale would not restrict new owners from sidestepping controls and sending maintenance overseas. It was a golden chance for the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers’ Association to raise concerns about poor standards in Singapore and the Philippines, where some maintenance work was conducted.

Of even greater concern was the Australian Workers’ Union fear that the consortium intended to raid the Qantas superannuation fund. A spokesman for Airline Partners Australia said: ‘It has never been an issue in this takeover proposal. Each time the issue has been raised, Airline Partners has been clear that the superannuation fund will not be touched.’13 The Qantas pilots’ union, the Australian and International Pilots’ Association, complained to the Takeovers Panel that the APA bid exaggerated the Texas