Virgin Australia goes into administration

Wahesh

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04...voluntary-administration-coronavirus/12167814

I'm sure most , if not all of you would've heard about this, it was the top story yesterday.

People are criticizing the Government for not dipping in and saving them. Essentially what it means is that Qantas will be unmatched with competition in our great southern land, and knowing them, fees will be through the roof.

Firstly, the virus has already cost this government billions, and they simply do not have an unlimited bucket of money... they have a budget that they need to stick to.

Secondly, ScoMo said that he will not be giving $1,000,000,000 to save a company that is 90% owned by foreigners... and that's a damn good point. VA is owned by other airlines, including Eithad, Singapore, and 2 Chinese airlines.

upload_2020-4-22_7-53-37.png


I respect and somewhat admire Richard Branson, he's the boss that a lot of people would dream to work for, (and I loathe Alan Joyce) but this is not something the Australian tax-payers should bear the brunt of. I stand with ScoMo on this one.
 

Wahesh

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Just for the record, Branson has re-mortgaged his private Caribbean island to help his employees as much as possible. He's someone who really cares about his staff and that's not something that can't be said about many employers these days.

 
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NPC83

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If the Aussie government wants to assist (doenst look like it right now) they should buy out Chinese shareholders and have a large stake in the company.
 

Raysie

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I stand by the Government on this one. Take a look at those owners; sorry, but Australians shouldn't be made to fit the bill.
 

Lov_Dog

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It's a tough one. Need competition in Australia as @Wahesh touched on.
How about a reverse privatization model where by the government buys up (using our tax money) majority of debt and business, returns the new business to profitability (hmmm...rarely are airlines profitable) before selling the business to Mom and Pop investors?
This model sees the tax payers paying twice for the strategy. I see no problem with such an approach, has happened with essentially every company that has been privatized 8-)
 

N4TE

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Just for the record, Branson has re-mortgaged his private Caribbean island to help his employees as much as possible. He's someone who really cares about his staff and that's not something that can't be said about many employers these days.

Met him a the V Fest in Sydney years ago. Dance music festival he was just walking around with two drinks in his hand and a big smile. Was happy to take a photo and nice as fuck.. Even though I was fairly hammered..
 

Kaz

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We can't let the leprechaun (Joyce) have complete control of the air.

We would need a mortgage to fly anywhere in Australia if Qantas was the lone airline.
 

Hacky McAxe

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It will be picked up. There's a few local owners who are considering buying it. Apparently Lindsey Fox (Lindfox) is one.

Virgin Australia has been mismanaged for a long time. It was $5 billion in debt before Coronavirus. It's better not to try bail it out. Let someone else pick it up, or let another company come forward.
 

Hacky McAxe

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We can't let the leprechaun (Joyce) have complete control of the air.

We would need a mortgage to fly anywhere in Australia if Qantas was the lone airline.
You can always fly Tiger Air or Jetstar. I hear that occasionally they don't lose your bags.
 

Kaz

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You can always fly Tiger Air or Jetstar. I hear that occasionally they don't lose your bags.
Tigerair is owed by Virgin Australia.

Jetstar the cheaper version of Qantas.

I may have to walk.
 

Superuber

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I stand by the Government on this one. Take a look at those owners; sorry, but Australians shouldn't be made to fit the bill.
So you want to dismiss the 10000 Aussies working for them and every other Aussie company who supplies VA because of who owns it. Very un-Australian
 

Raysie

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So you want to dismiss the 10000 Aussies working for them and every other Aussie company who supplies VA because of who owns it. Very un-Australian
That's a ridiculous statement. So because Virgin Australia is holding 10000 people effectively hostage, we should as tax payers make rich people richer and send more money down the drain in the process? Do you understand that?
 

Alan79

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In reality the government offers subsidies to our largely foreign owned mining companies and allows them to send our mineral assets offshore relatively tax free because they fund election campaigns.

Through a lack of subsidies in the automotive industry we've seen up to a quarter of a million jobs wiped out.

A further 10,000 jobs lost due to Virgin going under is just another small drop in the ocean.

Our country has been fucked over by the neutering of the regulatory body that used to quash the sale of our national assets to foreign entities. So I don't see the failure of Virgin in Australia as anything more than another small kick to our economy.

I'm sad for any current employees that will be out of work. But it's no worse than the fact that wage freeze for low income earners has caused many small business owners to go bust.
 

Hacky McAxe

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In reality the government offers subsidies to our largely foreign owned mining companies and allows them to send our mineral assets offshore relatively tax free because they fund election campaigns.

Through a lack of subsidies in the automotive industry we've seen up to a quarter of a million jobs wiped out.

A further 10,000 jobs lost due to Virgin going under is just another small drop in the ocean.

Our country has been fucked over by the neutering of the regulatory body that used to quash the sale of our national assets to foreign entities. So I don't see the failure of Virgin in Australia as anything more than another small kick to our economy.

I'm sad for any current employees that will be out of work. But it's no worse than the fact that wage freeze for low income earners has caused many small business owners to go bust.
The government only gives tiny subsidies to mining companies, and most of them are technically not subsidies.

Adani for example, the government built a road which cost about $120 million. A lot of money but a drop in the bucket compared to other subsidies.

They also removed the fuel excise tax, but they do that for all vehicles that aren't operated on public roads.
 

Superuber

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That's a ridiculous statement. So because Virgin Australia is holding 10000 people effectively hostage, we should as tax payers make rich people richer and send more money down the drain in the process? Do you understand that?
How is that ridiculous, 10000 workers = over $50M in wages to Aussie economy each year
The other thing your forgetting is they are not asking for subsidy, it’s a loan so it also needs to be repaid.
You must think the $300B the government is handing out during the the pandemic is a subsidy, do you realise we all need to pay that back. They are not a charity.
 

Mr Beast

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I’ve bloody got over 6 million points.

I can see potentially west farmers buying them out. Well maybe the velocity business actually.
 
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Chris Harding

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Tigerair is owed by Virgin Australia.

Jetstar the cheaper version of Qantas.

I may have to walk.
Tiger is a subsidiary of Singapore Air, which has a major shareholding in Virgin Aust.... If you want to see what a really cheap airline is like, fly with Scoot. Scoot is Singapore Air's budget version of Tiger.
 

Wahesh

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So you want to dismiss the 10000 Aussies working for them and every other Aussie company who supplies VA because of who owns it. Very un-Australian
Aussies lose their jobs all the time. I'm sure as flight attendants they'll have no trouble finding jobs domestically because you can almost guarantee that once this whole virus is over, the airlines will be very busy.

But at the end of the day, spending $1,000,000,000 tax payer dollars to bail out an airline that's 90% foreign owned is not the answer. Let the 90% foreign owners bail them out of this one!

Look at all those Aussie-owned companies in China. Do you think the Chinese Government will bail them out??? Heck no...
 

KambahOne

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No public bailouts. If a company goes arse up another will step in to fill the void, that's how capitalism is suppose to work.
 

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So you want to dismiss the 10000 Aussies working for them and every other Aussie company who supplies VA because of who owns it. Very un-Australian
No one WANTS 10000 aussies out of a job. However, they work for a company that has been so poorly run that they've produced losses for multiple years in a row.

Other Aussie tax payers (i.e. other Australians with jobs) do not want to pay to try and keep a sinking ship afloat. The same thing was tried with the aussie car industry and the owners took the cash and then pissed off to America.

We (Aus Govt) should not be spending a cent on keeping Virgin afloat
 
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