Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member from Adelaide very sincerely for that question. I know that he knows just how important aviation is to his city and the huge potential Adelaide has as a growing international travel destination.

Today I am very proud that the government released the aviation green paper. This is an important step in undertaking consultative and genuine reform of the aviation sector because this government does understand the importance of Australia's aviation sector to the economic prosperity of our nation and to the lives of all Australians who rely on this critical service.

But as we know, the previous government left the aviation policy space in absolute tatters. They gave billions of taxpayer dollars to Qantas with no strings attached. They stood by, frankly, as Virgin collapsed into administration, only for it to be snatched up by a foreign private equity. They saw the mass outsourcing of jobs and a labour hire mess that drove down wages across this sector.

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