Make A brief discussion on the key concepts (Management Accounting: Cost Terms and Concepts and Cost Behaviour, Cost Drivers and Cost Estimation) underlying the topic as it applies to the presentation task.

Excerpt one:

No stranger to toughing it out, Qantas boss Alan Joyce has declared he has the full support of the board after announcing the airline's worst result in nearly two decades.

However, Mr Joyce received a fresh blow mid-afternoon, when Prime Minister Tony Abbott played down the prospect of Qantas being handed a debt guarantee, despite the airline hours earlier announcing the $252 million half-year underlying loss and plans to cut 5000 jobs and close routes

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Mr Abbott but signalled his government has cooled on giving a debt guarantee to the airline, despite foreshadowing such a move in recent weeks.

The Prime Minister said that while the government was determined Qantas could compete on a level playing field, ''what we do for one business, in fairness, we have to make available to all businesses''.

The Qantas result, revealed by chief executive Alan Joyce Thursday morning, was the airline's biggest first-half loss since the Keating government began cutting it free from government ownership in 1995. It comes amid a bitter fight with Virgin Australia in the domestic market and intense competition on international routes.

Mr Joyce said he was "absolutely committed" to Qantas, despite calls for his resignation.

"Obviously the circumstances that Qantas faces today are very difficult. We have the capacity situation both domestically and internationally. But we have a plan to fix the problem. We have already made tough decisions, and nobody should doubt that there are more ahead."

Before the latest retrenchments, Mr Joyce had announced almost 4200 job cuts during his tenure.

The job cuts from Qantas's 33,000-strong workforce will be across the board. They include reducing management and back-office staffing levels by about 1500. It will also wind back its aircraft maintenance operations and catering.

Unions savage cuts, pledge fight

The Australian Services Union says Qantas decision to shed 5000 full time workers is short sighted.

The ASU represents workers in airport check-in, head office, administration and finance, call centres, freight and engineering clerical workers and administrative, operations and technical staff. ASU Assistant National Secretary Linda White says the decision is devastating for all workers at the company.

"It's outrageous that so many Qantas (and Jetstar) staff are going to bear the brunt of the poor business decisions made by Qantas in recent times," Ms White said.

"Qantas have suggested they will seek to freeze wages until they achieve a full year underlying profit. This is an indefinite claim, and front-line staff will have no influence over this outcome. It's punishing the workers for the poor business decisions made by Alan Joyce".

Excerpt Two:

Linda White, assistant national secretary of the ASU, which represents check-in, clerical, finance and administration staff, said Qantas has indicated 1500 ''back office'' jobs will be lost. She said the company had spoken about the positions ''as if they don't do anything''.

She says the union will oppose a staff wage freeze when it meets with Qantas officials tomorrow. More than 60 per cent of the workers earn base salaries of $37,000 to $57,000 and 35 per cent are part time.

Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon notes each baggage handler, check-in staff and ramp worker generates a $205,000 return to Qantas above the cost of their employment. ''Sacking them is like a tradesman selling his tools to pay a one-off bill,'' he says.

Required Your presentation should address the following statement:

"Managing costs is very important in most industries. In order to manage and control costs it is important to understand cost behaviour". Discuss this statement with reference to labour costs at Qantas, as per these two past newspaper articles.