Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

I particularly want to acknowledge the member for Bass, who, as a former head of the Australian Parachute Training School, knows more than a little bit about aviation.

An honourable member: He knows planes that don't work.

An honourable member: He knows when to get off!

He knows his way in and out of a plane! This question comes on a day on which a thousand job losses in the aviation sector have been announced. A thousand job losses were announced by Qantas before question time today. So the Australian aviation sector is clearly a sector under real pressure. In Qantas's annual report of 2013, released the day before the election, they acknowledged:

The introduction of the carbon tax drove up operating expenses by $106 million.

The Virgin Australia annual report of 27 September 2013 said:

The company was also impacted by the carbon tax during the 2013 financial year, with a $47.9 million cost of which we were unable to recover …

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