A little spot of irony in the story that the union rep for the airline's engineering staff is complaining about the aircraft being too old.
Naturally, older aircraft require more maintenance, both by the way they were designed and by how much they've been used. Qantas having older planes literally keeps this union rep's members in a job (or more of them in a job). Portraying the average age of Qantas' fleet as "alarming" is also fear mongering. Unlike some airlines which just keep buying new planes with a seemingly endless source of capital, Qantas tends to fly theirs for around 20 years and refurbishes the cabins at around the half way point (as we've seen with the A330s, B737s, Dash 8s and now the A380s), and when those aircraft are owned by Qantas rather than leased, they've generally been fully depreciated and don't have ongoing lessor or repayment costs, which helps the airline financially, and again, supports the jobs of those who maintain them.
Let's also remember that this is the guy who said his union would "bake them slowly" (Qantas) back in 2011 before the airline ended up being grounded to resolve the dispute. His feelings about Joyce aren't just jealousy around his current pay packet or stockmarket gains: there's a long history there.
Would be interesting to read a reply from Alan Joyce to Steve's article!