"Why not leave the past behind you?": Qantas chair on Joyce
John Mullen joins Joe Aston on Rampart Talks
Qantas chairman John Mullen says the airline has moved on from Alan Joyce, and now it's time for Joyce to do the same.
"It's his life, but the company's moved on, I've moved on, and I would have thought he would be best moving on," says Mullen, who took over as Qantas chair in 2024 after Joyce resigned in disgrace the previous year.
Joyce's memoir Alan Joyce: Riding the Jetstream is being released on Tuesday. It's touted as a "no-holds-barred" account of his nearly 15 years running the airline before his abrupt departure in September 2023.
"Trying to dredge up all this stuff and just whatever happened years ago, and all this and that. I just don't see why that adds value to anybody, it just stirs up the hornet's nest again, now things have calmed down," says Mullen.
Mullen says he hasn't yet seen the book, but might read an executive summary after its release.
"If I was him, you've had a successful, very successful track record of running an airline. These things come to an end. He's got plenty of money, doesn't need to work. Why not go out and enjoy life and leave the past behind you? That's what, if I was him, that's the legacy I'd be looking for. But if he wants to continue fighting, well that's his call."
