Between the lines: OK, now it can't get any worse ...

By DANIEL RIORDAN

My apologies.

In January, I penned a welcome to Air New Zealand's new chief executive, saying:

"Here's the good news, Gary Toomey. Things can't get much worse."

Well, they did - and how.

Yesterday the man who took a hospital pass while holding a poisoned chalice quit.

Talkback radio callers and Australians by the bucket load won't be sad to see him go - but I will.

The corporate world has little time for failure, but of all the major parties in Air NZ's steady spiral to the brink of oblivion - directors, Brierley Investments, Singapore Airlines and governments on both sides of the Tasman - Mr Toomey and his hand-picked management team were least to blame.

If he didn't make a good chief executive it wasn't for lack of trying. Maybe he needed better advice from those around him who had been in the game longer.

The first warning sign was when he took too long to emerge from his Auckland bunker and do the damage control in Melbourne over Ansett's Easter groundings.

The $30 million advertising campaign he fronted to win back public confidence in Ansett was a lame duck on several fronts - absolutely.

In front of the cameras, he resembled a giant wooden possum, and it was amazing that a million-dollar man couldn't find a well-fitting suit.

Under enormous pressure in recent months, the cracks in his judgment started to show.

His biggest faux pas was trumpeting to all and sundry Air NZ's billion-dollar cash reserves, which merely confused the market understanding of the group's financial status and hindered its recovery.

Whether he could have stayed at Air NZ longer is as yet unclear.

But I wish him well and some long overdue corporate good luck.

Stepping into Mr Toomey's shoes, at least temporarily, is the Government's appointee to the Air NZ board, accountant Roger France.

He's chairman of investment company Tappenden Holdings, the major shareholder of Zazu, which is the parent company of Tasman Pacific Airlines, which flew then crashed as Qantas NZ.

Here's the good news, Roger. Things can't get much worse.

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