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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As you stated, I was asked about the years of inaction, and, of course, we saw the previous government give billions of dollars of taxpayer moneys to Qantas with no strings attached. They stood by as Virgin collapsed into administration, only for it to be snatched up by foreign private equity. They saw the mass outsourcing of jobs and a labour hire mess that drove down wages and conditions across the sector. They commissioned the Harris review into the Sydney Airport, only to spend almost two years sitting on it, leaving it for us to sort out. They cut JobKeeper to Dnata workers and left those families in the lurch.

Today marks a turning point. The aviation green paper is an important step in developing our sector out to 2050. We want an aviation sector that maintains Australia's world-leading safety and security standards. We want an aviation sector with stronger consumer protections that provides secure jobs now and into the future.

See this speech in context