Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

So the doomsday scenario that the opposition suggests is simply not going to happen. Even if Qantas were to be like Virgin and separate its domestic arm from its international operations, the Air Navigation Act, the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Corporations Act, the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations, the Fair Work Act and immigration regulations would all continue to apply.

Honourable members may remember that Virgin, Rex and Skywest were all at some stage 100 per cent foreign owned, but I did not notice any foreign crew on board; I did not notice that they were importing food or in fact using foreign ground crew. The reality is that Virgin's head office is in Brisbane, their ground crews are in Australia, 75 per cent of their maintenance is done in Australia, their catering is done in Australia and their flight crews are Australian. Virgin employs about 9,500 people in its operations, and 9,000 of them are Australians.

Mr Snowdon interjecting—

See this speech in context