Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

What we are proposing to members opposite, and this is why I believe there is every chance that what we are proposing will pass the Senate, is to allow Qantas to operate under exactly the same rules that Virgin operates under. Let us look at Virgin. Virgin has gone from zero Australian employees to almost 10,000. That is not bad. Virgin has gone from nothing to being a great Australian airline. Virgin actually started off 100 per cent foreign owned. It is still majority foreign owned but Virgin employs Australians, it flies Australians and it services its planes in Australia. What is so bad about that, and why wouldn't a sensible Labor Party—a Labor Party animated by the same patriotism that the Hawke government was animated by, a Labor Party that spawned people like Martin Ferguson—a decent Labor man; a sensible Labor leader—wake up to itself and allow Qantas to do what Virgin does? To stop giving Virgin an unfair advantage vis-a-vis Qantas I want a level playing field. I want two great Australian airlines. I want Qantas to be able to compete. I want Virgin to be able to compete. I want them to be able to compete on the same level playing field, and if members opposite thought about it for five seconds, if they stopped playing these silly populist games, that is exactly what they would want.

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