If the recently formed Australian airline alliance A4NZ had wanted a more qualified chair for its movement – with its stated aim of going in hard against Australia's monopoly airport owners over high fees – it most certainly could not have done better than Graeme Samuel, AC.
After all, the man is a former chair of the ACCC, a professorial fellow at Monash University and until recently he was working for Melbourne Airport in his capacity as a corporate adviser.
Hang on. What was that last one? An adviser to Melbourne Airport? On the payroll of one of the bodies he is now charged with railing against? How does that work exactly? And when did he make the transition from one side of the lobbying fence to the other?
"Once I officially took up the A4NZ chairmanship, I ceased my Melbourne Airport consultancy work," Samuel told us. "I made a clean break. All the appropriate conflict of interest protocols were followed."
Oh, well that's a relief.
But what, we wondered aloud, was he doing for Melbourne Airport when he was working for them? Back in the past.
"Oh, I can't say too much about that," he replied. "Client confidentiality and all that."
Fair enough.
Mind you, he still seems to be spending quite a lot of time at Melbourne Airport – and not always with the intention of catching a plane. Doubtless he is there on official A4NZ work. Or maybe he just really likes the food court?
The A4NZ industry alliance includes Qantas Airways, Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand, regional carrier Regional Express Holdings and their low-cost subsidiaries Jetstar and Tigerair, and recently appointed former Pharmaceutical Society of Australia head Alison Roberts as its CEO.
