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'We're absolutely paranoid about this virus'

Qantas chairman Richard Goyder fears an obsession with COVID-19 numbers is masking the emotional toll it is taking on millions of Australians facing an uncertain financial future.

Veteran chairman Richard Goyder at his farm north-east of Perth. Trevor Collens

Sally PattenBOSS editor

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COVID-19 has become something of a national obsession, notes Richard Goyder in a reflective moment.

"We're now almost addicted to the numbers every day – 'How many new cases? How many deaths?' – which we didn't have with influenza and we don't have with motor vehicle accidents and we don't have with other [diseases and harmful incidents]," says Goyder, one of the country's highest profile chairmen who sits at the helm of Qantas, the AFL and oil and gas producer Woodside.

"We're absolutely paranoid about this virus," Goyder says, suggesting that for some the paranoia is clearly appropriate, for others less so.

One of the downsides of this national obsession is that it masks other issues, among them the emotional toll it is taking on millions of Australians who have been stood down, made redundant or are worried about losing their jobs and what their financial future holds.

"There's a lot going on at the moment that is below the numbers that we seem to be fascinated with," he says. "There is a human side to this at Qantas [and] that extends to a whole lot of other businesses. We've got something like 20,000 employees stood down. They're thinking: 'What's my future?'"

It came home to Goyder the other day when he and his wife Janine were shopping at Coles in Perth. (When Goyder was CEO of Wesfarmers, the conglomerate owned the supermarket chain and he readily admits "old habits die hard".)

Recognising the Qantas chairman, another shopper approached him.

"This woman came up to me and she said: 'Do you mind if I talk to you? I know who you are.' I said: 'Sure.' She had red eyes and tears through the conversation. Turns out that she's been a flight attendant for 31 years at Qantas and she wanted to know whether she had a future.

"It was one of those really difficult conversations and I said: 'Well, it's hard.' She said: 'What do I do? Do I take a redundancy at Qantas? Do I stay? I love Qantas.' She's just passionate about Qantas, like most of our employees, and through no fault of her own she's looking out and isn't sure whether she's got a future. It was challenging for me because what do you say?

"So I said: 'Well, on my good days I'm very confident we'll have a vaccine, if not later this year early, next year. If that happens we could be back in the air by the middle of next year. If you're passionate about Qantas you should hang in there.' Fortunately, she didn't ask me about my bad days," Goyder says.

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"The pilots are the same. You look back at what we were saying 12 months ago: 'We're opening these pilot academies globally. There's going to be a shortage of pilots.' Now, we've got pilots who are working at Bunnings, ALDI, Woolworths and Coles and they're not sure when they're going to be flying again.

"There is the mental health side of this. I know people are really aware of it, but I think it is going to be fairly significant."

Former Qantas international boss Tino La Spina. Wolter Peeters

The same goes for senior executives. On August 24 Qantas axed international boss Tino La Spina on the grounds that the international fleet was facing a "long-term hibernation".

The same day, the AFL announced a restructure, which led to the departure of growth and digital boss Darren Birch and the stepping down of Ray Gunston from the executive to take an advisory role. All up, the AFL is shedding about 20 per cent of staff.

In the case of La Spina, airline CEO Alan Joyce raised the idea of jettisoning the well-respected executive and former chief financial officer with Goyder, who subsequently spoke to the other directors. Joyce felt it was inconsistent to keep La Spina in the role that "at the moment doesn't exist", Goyder recalls.

"It was a really hard, difficult decision. In these times you have got to do what you have got to do, but there is a human cost.

"Tino is an exceptional person. He did a great job as CFO of Qantas. We put Tino into that [international] role to give him the opportunity to run a business. Like thousands of other Qantas employees, through no fault of his own, there's no job. Tino's been brilliant about it and he'll get another role, but it hurts.

"I used to say when I was running Wesfarmers the thing that kept awake at night was losing talent. But [losing talent] is unavoidable at the moment if you're trying to make sure that you're structuring your business in a way that can survive," Goyder says from his farm about 130 kilometres north-east of Perth.

Goyder rang La Spina, Birch and Gunstan. "They're not easy conversations. People are adult and grown up about it, but because they're at that level they understand the rationale behind it. But these people have to go home and tell their partners and families. They've gone from flying high, excuse the pun, to this thing's knocked them about," he says.

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The balancing act, of course, is that on the other side there are shareholders who want comfort that companies have strategies in place to get their businesses through the pandemic. The plan to outsource nearly 2500 ground-handling jobs is a case in point. The potential saving of $100 million a year is "material", Goyder says.

The seasoned chairman also says the mental health of executives, who are often working harder than ever, is an issue that is being raised at every board meeting. "How do we get people to have some sort of a break?"

Joyce managed a "short break" a couple of months ago.

"With [AFL chief executive] Gill McLachlan in Melbourne, how do I say: 'Gill, take a break'? You can't." The AFL is in the midst of a frenzied fixture block in an attempt to finish the season, with teams forced to spend extended periods interstate.

'People actually need a road map'

Asked what governments could do to support Australians who are suffering because of uncertainty about their financial futures, Goyder is quick to respond.

"People actually need a road map. People need to try and understand what the plan is and that there's a pathway.

"My concern at the moment is, yes, let's have confidence and hope around a vaccine, but in the absence of that, let's make sure we have still got a pathway and that goes to opening up the economy and also better treatment, better management of hotspots and testing regimes."

Failure to do so will take an even greater toll on the economy, and in particular the younger generation. Goyder says the 20 per cent youth unemployment rate is already at a "crisis" point.

"That's one in five kids and it could get worse. This impacts the wrong people. I think the economic reality hasn't hit because of the programs that've been put in place. That's great, but at some point reality's going to hit."

Businesses, individuals and governments are, at some stage, going to have to pay back all the debt they are amassing.

"The debt that the state and federal governments are incurring will need to be paid back. There's a consequence and, at the moment, my worry is that the consequences could be impacting young people more."

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Sally Patten
Sally PattenBOSS editorSally Patten edits BOSS, and writes about workplace issues. She was the financial services editor and personal finance editor of the AFR, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. She edited business news for The Times of London. Connect with Sally on Twitter. Email Sally at spatten@afr.com

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