Qantas' dunny diddle

The cyber attack on Qantas, revealed on Wednesday, briefly placed the airline back at the national water cooler. 

I appreciate the national significance of these major hacks, but I also find them incredibly boring as media stories – particularly the endless gainsaying of the PR responses of the target companies. Qantas is condemned for not putting Vanessa Hudson (or anyone, for that matter) in front of the cameras on day one by the same people who condemned Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin for fronting them on day one and having nothing satisfactory to say. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it was smart of Hudson to wait five days after the hack to fly home from Greece (where she'd been holidaying, but at least not rubbing it in our faces on Instagram), but she seems to have gotten away with it.[[Behind the scenes, Qantas claimed that flying home immediately would've taken Hudson offline for too long. I don't want to make this out to be a bigger issue than it is, because it's not, but I find that justification uncompelling and almost tortured. She could've flown Qatar Airways from Athens and video-conferenced the whole way on its super-fast Starlink wi-fi. Frankly, chartering Hudson a private jet would've been completely justified in the circumstances.]] 

In July 2022, Alan Joyce copped it deluxe after Qantas operations melted down in the school holidays while he was holidaying in Ireland and Italy. It didn't help that he'd been torturing the travelling public for two years straight and then upon returning home, asked aloud, "Why is it relevant what I do in my private life? I'm not a public figure." That comment marked the beginning of the end for Joyce; twelve months later he resigned in disgrace.