Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

How true. The airline has 48 aircraft flying to 36 destinations. In December 2013, the company carried 84,000 passengers. Rex also faces the challenges of a highly competitive industry—aviation is a tough industry—and cost pressures such as high wage costs and a job-killing carbon tax. Rex profits are down, with a 60 per cent slump in half-yearly profits. Despite this, Rex has not asked for a government debt guarantee or a blank cheque. They have not asked for a handout. In 2012-13, Rex paid $2.4 million in carbon tax—$2.4 million! In the first half of this year, 2013-14, Rex has already paid $1.3 million in carbon tax liabilities. I spoke to the deputy chairman of Rex, John Sharp, in parliament just the other day. He is astounded by the impost that is still being placed on Rex, a fine regional company—albeit foreign owned—doing a great job for regional Australians. John Sharp cannot believe the impost being place on Rex and the fact that Labor will not get out of the way, or perhaps even get in the way, to help us to remove the carbon tax.

Rex was established in 2002 following the collapse of Ansett in September 2001 and is a merger of the regional passenger arms of Ansett, Hazelton and Kendell. Rex does a fine job but is paying a lot of the profits in the carbon tax. I urge Labor to get on board with us and to remove this job-killing tax.

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