Well, that was unexpected.

Back before I launched the first issue of Raising Hell and made it official with an announcement to social media, there was an anxious part of me which felt like I was about to host a party where no one was going to turn up. When I began investigating how this experiment in reader-supported journalism might work, I did so with deep doubts about whether anyone out there might actually want to actively follow my work, let alone support me financially to keep going.

All I needed to make it meaningful, I told myself many times, was one regular reader. It is because I believe this so strongly that the response over the last week has been deeply humbling. Since Raising Hell went live, the messages of support I have received from people for this project and my work more broadly — from friends and strangers alike — has been deeply moving. So too has been the kind gesture of those who have gone a step further to support me financially. To date, fifty-six people have signed up to the mailing list, with 24 graciously paying to subscribe which will help me continue making journalism that matters. I share these numbers with you now in the interests of full disclosure.

And because it’s nice to be proven an idiot on occasion. It keeps you honest.

Though I am still currently planning to publish on a fortnightly basis in order to allow me enough time to keep making journalism, I wanted to send a quick mid-week missive to say:

Thank you, to all of you.

There is no way for me to fully express how grateful I am for your support to date, as it is you who make this possible. In an effort to show my appreciation, I have spent the last few days trying to think of something I could do in thanks. While I originally thought it might be good to offer some exclusive, subscriber-only content, this created a certain tension with my vision for Raising Hell as a reader-supported vehicle for producing public interest journalism. After all, if this is about journalism that matters, the public should be able to access it…

With this in mind, I have decided to publish the transcript of audio I was leaked as part of a story I worked on last week. The recording captures the final minutes of teleconference call between Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and the airline’s workforce which formed the basis of my story published in The Saturday Paper over the weekend. The focus of that story was the opportunistic squabble by the CEO of an airline to improve his company’s financial position at a time when he had just laid off his workforce during a national crisis. Since that story ran, events have moved quickly. Virgin has written to the government asking for a $1.4 billion bailout. Qantas, meanwhile, has upped the ante by asking (according to an unnamed “well-placed source within the government”) for $4.2 billion (three times the amount Virgin asked for) in order to “level the playing field”. This is despite Qantas insisting that it does not want or need financial assistance.

Go figure.

To my paying subscribers, I do want to provide some subscriber-only content at some point, though I am not sure what that might look like. If any of you have any ideas about what you would like to see, while ensuring that we fulfill the purpose Raising Hell was set up to achieve, please feel free get in touch and let me know your suggestions.

[Recording Begins]


…that no other airline group has, and I’m sure we’ll get through this better than any other airline group. Can I also —I might make mention to another story that appeared today, and we might do this also as part of this, that in the press this morning there were comments in The Australian about the potential for Virgin to be nationalised and getting government support. And sometimes these stories are just speculative and sometimes they don’t have any basis, but of course, we’re ask to respond to them and we do respond and to be fair, our response on this one is very clear. We think everyone is entitled to a fair go and if the government is helping, it should help an industry, not a particular company. Governments are not there to pick winners and losers, governments are definitely not there to support a company that has been badly managed for ten years. A government is definitely not there to support a company that is owned by Singaporeans, Chinese, and Abu Dhabi and a British billionaire. They are there to do what’s best for Australia and that means that they have to support every company equally or support no companies. And we are very strong with that with our direct communication to the government. We are very strong with that in our direct communication to the media. And I’d ask all employers — because it is in your interest — to make sure to your members of parliament, to — and Scott Morrison is your member of parliament, to make clear to them that you expect equal treatment to the airlines in this country. And it would be outrageous if Virgin, our competitors, are supported and Qantas isn’t. It would be unfair to you. It would be unfair to the country. And it would be unfair to the national carrier. So I would ask you as call to action to make your position very clear to every politician in this country.

Thank you very much for this, and we are going to do this again on Monday and we’ll keep this going while the interest is out there…

[Recording Ends]