Independent senator Nick Xenophon says now that Qantas' credit rating is at junk status, its shareholders should "junk" its chief executive and board.
Ratings agency Standard and Poor's has downgraded the airline's credit rating, increasing the cost of financing and restricting access to investors that do not invest in lower-rated companies.
Trading in Qantas shares was temporarily halted pending the decision after the company announced it would cut 1000 jobs and flagged an underlying half-year loss of up to $300 million.
Senator Xenophon said shareholders should call an extraordinary general meeting to sack the board.
"Alan Joyce would be to Qantas what Captain Francesco Schettino was to the Costa Concordia," the South Australian senator told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
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"Because Qantas has now gone to junk status, one way of fixing the problem is to junk Alan Joyce and the board.
"Enough is enough. The shareholders need to rise up ... because otherwise we will end up trashing a great airline."
He said allowing Qantas to become foreign owned was not in the national interest, nor was allowing the airline's assets to be stripped by "private equity buccaneers".
