Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This morning I rang a Qantas employee, a pilot who has worked for Qantas for 26 years who lives in my electorate. I asked him for his view on what had gone on over the last 24 hours. He is a loyal Qantas employee, proud of the fact that he works for our nation's carrier. His view is that many of the employees are despairing over what has gone on at Qantas. The word he used to describe what this government did to Qantas last night was 'skulduggery'. I could not have put it better myself.

On 6 December Qantas had its credit rating downgraded. Since that time it has been negotiating with this government for assistance, for some form of debt guarantee to ensure that it can go to the market to raise capital to compete with Virgin. The government have been listening; they have been negotiating. On 28 November, the Treasurer said about Qantas that there is significant community benefit in having a national carrier. He also said that the conditions were now in place for Qantas to have government support. What happened last night? Last night, the Prime Minister rolled the Treasurer in cabinet and announced something else. He said to Qantas that the negotiations regarding a debt guarantee would not be met and that they would not have the satisfaction of being able to go to the market with that guaranteed government support—skulduggery, indeed.

Last night this government chopped the tail off the flying kangaroo. They have left it rudderless, open to being split up, with the possibility of its head office going overseas, its board being taken over by foreign companies and its workers' jobs going overseas. Qantas is a very important business to the Australian economy. It employs 30,000 Australians—proud, hardworking, dedicated men and women who work for our nation's carrier. It spends $6 billion on goods and services in the Australian economy, and adds $1.4 billion in direct and indirect taxes, contributing revenue to our nation to fund our hospitals, our roads and our schools. Qantas passengers spend $28 billion on tourism in Australia. As Tim Harcourt, an airport economist from the University of New South Wales, said: 'The United States has Coca-Cola. Germany has BMW. Sweden has IKEA. Finland has Nokia. Italy has Alpha Romeo. Australia has Qantas.'

Qantas is the iconic Australian business, with the world's greatest safety record, and its dedicated and skilled employees are all now at risk because of this government. This government do not listen. Qantas has been seeking support in the form of a debt guarantee for some three months now. It has been asking the government to seriously look at this issue so it can compete with Virgin, who is backed by foreign government owned airlines. Yesterday, Qantas said that its difficult situation had nothing to do with carbon pricing—no issue at all with carbon pricing. Those were the words of the Qantas executive—that it had nothing to do with carbon pricing. What has this government done? It has ignored the pleas of Qantas and acted today to cut off the tail of our nation's airline.

This argument that they are unshackling Qantas is complete garbage. Qantas is allowed a level of foreign ownership of 49 per cent. The current level of foreign ownership of Qantas is 38 per cent. Foreigners can invest in Qantas at the moment. There are no restrictions at the moment because the level of foreign ownership is not at the maximum. The government are also saying that Qantas should be allowed to be split up, that Qantas should be allowed to divide its domestic and international businesses. Yesterday, they worked out that Qantas international needs to remain an Australian carrier and that a level of investment above 49 per cent is not allowed, but it is allowed for the domestic business. You can split it up and sell off the domestic business. The facts are these: Qantas domestic made a $57 million profit in the first half of this year. Those opposite want to allow Qantas to be split up and the profitable side of the business sold off to foreign investors, with jobs going overseas, whilst we have to maintain an unprofitable, international business here in Australia. (Time expired)

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