Qantas chair Richard Goyder dismisses calls to step down during grilling before Senate

Embattled Qantas chairman Richard Goyder has dismissed calls to step down, as the airline’s CEO Vanessa Hudson claimed it was “an important part of democracy” that its plea to the government to block extra air rights for Qatar Airways be kept private. Appearing before a Senate inquiry on Wednesday, Hudson also reiterated former Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s claims that Qatar Airways’ proposed expansion would have distorted the aviation market when it was requested in October 2022. After repeating a public apology, Hudson declined to answer questions on whether Qantas’ position had changed given the considerable recovery the aviation market has since made. She also said Qantas’ opposition was not about its own financial benefit. “(In October 2022) the international market had not yet recovered from Covid and our submission pointed to that. We felt that it was it was important that the market returned to 100% before we structurally changed,” Hudson told the inquiry. Hudson and Qantas’ general counsel Andrew Finch gave permission for the submission which the airline prepared in October 2022 to be provided to the committee in redacted form, provided it was not made publicly available. Finch said this was due to a “desire to ensure that corporates and individuals feel comfortable when they make submissions to the government … and particularly when they’re invited to do so that their submissions are kept confidential”. Asked by the Liberal senator Simon Birmingham if it would make a version of the submission public, Hudson backed Finch’s reasoning for not wanting the submission made public, saying “we think that that’s an important part of democracy”.<br/>