Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Always in the back row, Mr President. My question is to Senator Evans in his capacity as Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations. In the recent Senate Rural Affairs and Transport Committee inquiry into pilot training and aviation safety, the issue of using foreign crews for domestic flights was raised. These overseas based crews are employed on foreign contracts and recent media reports state that, for instance, Jetstar flight attendants on overseas contracts get paid a fraction of what Australian based flight attendants are paid and can work shifts of up to 22 hours compared to 12 hours for Australian based flight attendants. They apparently have no recourse to workers compensation laws in Australia despite effectively doing significant amounts of domestic flight work. Is the minister aware of foreign crews flying what are essentially domestic routes? What is the government's position on such workers in Australia being paid such low wages under such harsh conditions?