Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Deakin interjected that it saved jobs by giving Rex Airlines millions of dollars to take over the routes that they'd shafted.

An opposition member interjecting

You said it yourself. I know you often are very mendacious with your claims, but you've got to remember what you said.

An opposition member interjecting

The reality is: Virgin workers lost their jobs, and he laughed about it. He thinks it's fun. It's not fun. It's absolutely amazing that they could come in here on a day when we're talking about a bill looking after Australian workers, closing loopholes, and stand there and argue that Australians don't deserve good, proper-paying jobs with a good, secure workforce.

The member for Riverina talked about people coming into the market and undercutting. You can't have an airline come in from overseas and just undercut to the point where Australian jobs are at risk and Australian airlines are placed at a disadvantage. You'd think it would be a no-brainer that they'd support that, but they bring in an MPI to actually go against it. To sit there and say, 'Let's get a government owned airline from overseas to come in and be involved and take away Australian jobs'—it's amazing that they have the audacity to do that sort of thing. I ask leave of the House to continue my remarks at a later moment.

Leave granted.

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