Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Clark raises an important issue. Australian airlines were once regarded as amongst the best in the world for service, safety and reliability. They were the airlines of choice for most Australians. Yet today all of that has changed. Confidence in the Australian airlines has been lost. We debate this motion at a time when the Virgin CEO has recently announced her retirement and the Qantas chair is on his way out, and long-time Qantas CEO Alan Joyce ended his term last year, when he had reportedly been earning $21.4 million.

It's all happened at a time that Qantas also lost $2.5 billion dollars in value, according to some reports; 1,700 workers were found to have been illegally sacked; several other Qantas executives have been overpaid; flights have been regularly cancelled or delayed; luggage has been misdirected or lost; services including aircraft maintenance have been outsourced or offshored; customers seeking refunds have been made to jump through hoops; and price gouging has become a regular feature of Qantas, adding to cost-of-living pressures, as we all know.

My office was regularly contacted by people who were unfairly dealt with by the two major airlines—in particular, when trying to seek refunds. Yet I understand that only in the first half of this year Qantas's profit was $1.25 billion.

We can all understand the disruption that would have occurred during the COVID years. I think that was to be expected, and every industry was disrupted. However, the downward slide of our two major airlines began many years ago.

The reality is, however, that today air travel is no longer a luxury for most people; it's a necessity of everyday life for so many. For them, the economic losses and the cost when flights are cancelled or delayed are considerable. The reality is also that airline flights are no longer cheap. Many people have to think carefully about whether they go interstate by taking an airline flight, because of the cost. I spoke to a businessperson not long ago who made that very point—that he had to choose whether he went interstate for an important event or whether he stayed home because of the cost of the flight.

The fact is that, as the member for Clark quite rightly points out, airlines must be held accountable when they don't deliver the services that customers have paid for, in the same way that retailers are accountable under consumer laws for the products that they sell. The ACCC must be given the power it needs to hold airlines to account. I do note that the motion expressly refers to the creation of an independent airline ombudsman with appropriate powers. Whether it's an ombudsman or it's the ACCC, the reality is that we need to find a mechanism by which the airlines are held to account for the services they promise and then do not deliver.

As the member for Clark also alluded, my comments in no way reflect on the Qantas and Virgin workforces. As members of parliament, we all fly often and we see the pressures those staff are under each and every day. They in turn, I think, have to deal with incredibly difficult circumstances and do the best they can under very difficult conditions. They often deal with very frustrated and angry customers. Again, I can understand why the customers are angry, but the staff, through no fault of their own, are trying to accommodate them in the best way they can, and I commend them for the effort they often go to.

The reality is that also, through COVID, many of them left the industry and did not come back afterwards, because they knew they would be coming back to an industry that was incredibly stressful. I sometimes wonder about how many of them need to take time off work because of the stress associated with it. I understand the government has got an aviation white paper process underway. That process is important. It's important, firstly, as I said earlier, in keeping the airlines to account but, more importantly, to restore public confidence in the Australian airlines—the way it used to be. I look forward to the outcome of that process.

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