Former prime minister Paul Keating says the government shouldn’t have intervened in the Qantas Airways Limited (ASX:QAN) dispute.
Speaking with Sky News, the former Labor leader says he would have let the airline’s chief executive Alan Joyce sit there for a week or two, which would have likely led to shareholders voting him out. Mr Keating says the unions would have also had to bargain for a resolution.
In reality however, Fair Work Australia stepped in and terminated the dispute, and the airlines and unions have yet to reach an agreement.
The former leader says a non-arbitrated bargained outcome would have been better for the airline in the long run.
In the 2011 financial year Qantas reported a net profit of $249 million.
