Understandably, people who were inconvenienced by the sudden grounding of the Qantas fleet were annoyed. Qantas has worked hard to recompense those inconvenienced. I haven't noticed anyone saying the unions should foot the bill for the havoc they caused to passengers. Since August, about 70,000 Qantas customers have been inconvenienced by industrial action. About 88,000 seats were withdrawn from sale due to the grounding of seven aircraft because of maintenance concerns. The cost to Qantas' profit and thus its viability was already $68 million. If the industrial action kept going the costs would have been a further $2 million a day, or $60 million a month. Unions seem proud of that term, slow baking, and the bravado associated with it. Slowly rendering the company that employs you and your workmates less and less profitable is nothing to be proud of. It is just union thuggery. That we have an industrial relations system that allows such overt undermining of the job security of so many others seems irrational. Liberal and Labor voters should agree on this. Even Wayne Swan agrees the system needs tweaking.

Remember, Labor privatised Qantas in the '90s. It is not a government airline; it is a private company. The unions don't own it and they should not be allowed to dictate its future direction. That is management's role. So what should management have done? Doing nothing wasn't an option. Protracted union action had already eroded financial viability and thus job security for all Qantas workers. There were promises of more to come in the lead-up to Christmas. But giving in to this union thuggery would just make the airline even less viable. Qantas' international arm and all its associated jobs could follow Ansett into history. Then there's the only real option under the act … bring it on. And that's what, with the support of the board, Alan Joyce did. The Prime Minister says she didn't use the powers available to her to bring it all to an end because she was concerned her actions could be litigated and draw the matter out.

That says two things. First, she has no confidence in Labor's changes to industrial relations laws. She effectively admits that the power available to her under the Fair Work legislation is, in the real world, unworkable. Second, she realised the dispute needed to be brought to a conclusion. She is praised for having come to the same conclusion as Alan Joyce. Namely, let's avoid further dispute and inconvenience and get this resolved once and for all. What is not explicable is why the Prime Minister was so critical of Qantas' actions to bring it all to a head and yet went doggo for the entire time of the slow bake which the unions were relishing. We should be proud of all the Australian companies that are doing business internationally. Expanding into the enormous Asian market makes common sense. In this rapidly changing and competitive world it is a folly to try to put a plastic bubble over one part of an economy or a company and expect things to stay as they are. It seems that is an insight not shared by some unions. Even the most ill-informed person knows that Qantas is competing internationally against airlines with lower cost structures. Qantas can't ignore that. Their ticket prices reflect it.

Joyce was faced with a well-publicised slow bake of his company by the unions. The government turned a blind eye while Qantas burnt. He made a decision to bring it to a head and resolve it. He gave the government a chance to use its powers to bring it to an end. The Prime Minister chose not to. In order to end it, Joyce simply had to bring it on. He knows that whatever Fair Work Australia decides, some unions will be looking to undermine him. Whatever your politics, just stand back and take a look at this. Here is a guy under attack from some powerful and protected interests. He doesn't shirk his responsibility. He doesn't cower or run. He stands firm and takes it up to them. He's an Aussie if ever there was one. Make him Australian of the Year. Loading Amanda Vanstone was a minister in the Howard government. Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU