Top brass at Qantas turns against his own airline and blasts ‘woke’ companies – and the huge mistake that cost the national carrier

Qantas chairman John Mullen has issued a warning about the dangers of companies, including his own, getting too involved in ‘woke’ campaigns such as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Under former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, the airline strongly backed a Yes vote in the referendum, with some of its planes painted with ‘Yes23’ to support the campaign.

Mr Mullen said that as he wasn’t working with Qantas at the time of the vote, it wasn’t his job to comment on it now. The referendum was voted down in October 2023.

Mr Mullen said corporate Australia ‘did itself no favours’ in campaigning for the Voice and pointed out the major ‘mistake’ it made.

‘A lot of people saw corporate Australia lecturing them on what they should think (about the Voice),’ he told the The Australian.

‘I think that’s where we made the mistake. I was at Telstra at the time and we supported the voice, but we debated it extensively.’ 

He said different views were expressed, but Telstra decided to back the Voice as it was rolling out mobile phone coverage to Indigenous communities at the time.

There was a strong backlash against giant corporations such as Telstra and Qantas for backing the Voice, with Mr Joyce in particular coming under fire. 

Mr Mullen said people in the ‘bush and other communities did not like to be told what to do by people from the east coast cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne’.

Further explaining his views in an opinion piece for the Australian Financial Review, Mr Mullen wrote that companies traditionally stayed away from social issues and focused on making a profit. 

‘In today’s social media-driven world, however, companies have increasingly taken public stances on divisive issues such as same-sex marriage, the Voice, climate change and other causes,’ he said.

‘While these efforts have been well-intentioned, I think that as so often happens, the pendulum has maybe swung too far.’

With the Indigenous referendum, he said he didn’t ‘think that it was so much actually about whether one was for or against the Voice. 

‘It was basically just that people don’t like to be told by others what they should think.’

Mr Mullen said there was a difference between a company expressing an opinion on an issue and ‘actively campaigning’ on it. 

But he added that it would have been ‘equally damaging’ if companies had chosen to campaign against the Voice. 

He said in future, corporate Australia should pick its battles more carefully and ‘not try to pick winners and losers or throw its weight behind every cause that comes along’. 

‘That is what we have an elected government for,’ he said.

The chairman also wrote about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues as used by companies to hire people from different races and genders and to address social concerns.

DEI and ESG initiative are now being wound back or done away with completely in the US under President Donald Trump.

‘Clearly, in some areas corporates and others overstepped the enthusiastic adoption of some of the more radical or “woke” initiatives, and this has caused a backlash in some quarters,’ Mr Mullen wrote.

But he said that mainstream DEI and ESG initiatives ‘have largely been shown to improve performance and add value to corporations. 

‘So I am mystified to read that some organisations are now reversing their DEI and ESG initiatives simply based upon the way the wind is blowing in the US. 

‘If they can suddenly drop the initiatives again and run like lemmings in the other direction than the one they ran in literally only yesterday, then one would be forgiven for wondering whether they ever really believed in the programs in the first place, or were they just virtue-signalling and doing them to try to look good and conform?’

His advice for fellow corporate leaders is: ‘Just ask yourself what is good for your company and don’t follow the latest trend out there. 

‘Don’t be radically woke but don’t be radically anti-woke either. Just do what you think is right and stick to it.

‘And always, as a director, be prepared to make a decision that differs from your personal conviction if it is the best thing for the company … 

‘You need that in order to discharge the “pub test” side of it.’