Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The government has been actively engaged in trying to find a resolution to the various Qantas disputes and in supporting the parties in their enterprise bargaining for some time. Both Minister Albanese and I have been meeting with Qantas and the unions over recent months. There have been a number of meetings where we have discussed options, put propositions and done whatever we could to see if we could assist in that regard. We have also been taking advice from my department for some time now as to what our options might be in the event of certain circumstances developing inside Qantas. It is the case that the decision by Qantas to lock out its employees—an unprecedented action by an airline—did come as a surprise to us. But we had already been in the position of working with the department to make sure we had the best advice available and were able to act quickly, and we did. (Time expired)