Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Don't take my word for it. Look at the public record. Look at all the photographs of the two of them smiling together at various glittering events around the country. We are expected to believe that at none of these glittering events, apparently, did Mr Joyce just once whisper in the Prime Minister's ear, 'I'm not too keen on that Qatar application; that would be bad news for us.' The minister has been given, as indeed has the Prime Minister, every opportunity to explain to this chamber exactly what happened, but all that we have for the moment is an incredibly murky and rather inconsistent set of claims and the very limited eking out of information that has been provided to us.

The minister today, being very cagey in her wording, tells us that the decision was taken on 10 July. We know, from what the Prime Minister was forced to admit when he had to come back into the parliament the other day and correct his answer, that as at 13 July she hadn't got around to telling him. How do we know that? Because he tells us that he had a conversation with the Virgin chief executive about this matter on 13 July. He said, 'During that discussion, I did not know that the transport minister had made a decision'. All we have heard from the minister today—the most she has been prepared to inform us—was that, by that point on 18 July when the matter became public, the Prime Minister was aware of it.

We don't know how he became aware. It's perfectly possible, on what we have been told, that he became aware when he saw it in the newspaper. Australians might well ask: is this how you competently run a government? Is this how you professionally administer the affairs of this nation in the interests of the Australian people? I think Australians might well be looking at this and saying it is more than evident that this is not a competent, well-organised, professionally-run government—quite the contrary. That is why this motion is so important. That is why standing orders need to be suspended. Let's be clear: fundamentally, this is about the interests of the Australian people.

Under this government, everything is more expensive. That includes airfares. Typical airfares are up to 50 per cent higher than they were before the pandemic. What's this government doing about it? What it should be doing about it is fostering competition and taking every opportunity to increase the choices and the options that are available to the Australian people, because, let's be clear, for most people, when the flights are being cancelled and when the flights are very expensive, you don't have the option of dialling up a government jet and saying I don't need to worry about it. For most people, what you need, if you were to have the opportunity to travel, is airlines that are offering good services at good prices. That ought to be the public policy priority, you would think, of any capable and rational minister for infrastructure and transport. On the contrary, this minister has made a decision which is extraordinarily difficult to understand. It has been roundly criticised by the current chair of the ACCC, a former chair of the ACCC and, rightly so, the Australian people will be wondering what's going on. This motion is about giving them the explanation they deserve. (Time expired)

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