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

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Is the government confident that all domestic airlines in Australia will survive the COVID-19 crisis without further support?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ballarat, the shadow minister for infrastructure, transport and regional development, for her question. We are doing everything that we can to get every regional airline through. That is why on 18 March, when I stood at the Wagga Wagga Airport and announced the initial $715 million package, it benefited not only the big players in the industry, Virgin and Qantas, but also regional airlines. What we did was we backdated those announcements that affected fuel excise, Airservices Australia fees and such things as security screening. Because of the backdating, that provided $159 million straight into those companies' bottom lines.

What we then did is we announced our $298 million package for regional aviation. So $198 million of that is going to those regional air services for the 138 or so centres right across Australia that rely on vital air services—sometimes daily and sometimes weekly—to provide in the interim, going forward, maybe a service per week to provide medical personnel, medicine and, indeed, medical supplies to those centres right across Australia. All of those airlines—be it Regional Express, be it QantasLink or be it Virgin—can access that $198 million of subsidy for that particular service.

Then, of course, on the same day I announced $100 million of underwriting for regional airlines. We want regional airlines to come through the other side. It's one in, all in. We want to make sure that regional aviation, and all aviation, can be its best self out the other side. That's why the federal government is providing and has provided more than $1 billion of support for aviation. We want our airlines to come through the other side. We realise it's going to be very, very tough for them. COVID-19 is having a devastating effect on regional, domestic and international travel, and we want to make sure that our aviation industry is protected. Thank you for the question.