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

I thank Senator Ronaldson for his question and for reminding me that I was a union official. I think that it was pre-war—it was a fair while back, but I do recall it. I thought that I would say it and save my colleagues saying it.

The government have engaged constructively with both Qantas and the various unions in dispute with Qantas in recent months to do what we could do to help resolve the disputes at the heart of this industrial disputation. We have done everything that we can to assist the parties. We have also made offers that have not been taken up by the parties in terms of alternative conciliation procedures. We have tried to work as positively as we can to assist the parties. But, as Senator Ronaldson would know, both sides of these disputes—the unions and Qantas—were arguing publicly that they ought to be allowed to negotiate, that they continued to bargain in good faith and that they wanted the matter to be resolved by negotiation.

At no time, either publicly or privately, did either Qantas or the unions ask for our intervention. In fact, on a number of occasions it was made clear to me that it would not be welcomed. We were under the clear impression, as was Australia, given the public comments, that people wanted to negotiate that settlement. Many of the parties were appearing before Fair Work Australia in conferences seeking to resolve their differences. Those are the facts in relation to the government's engagement with the Qantas industrial disputation. We were anxious for the parties to resolve those matters. We understood the seriousness of the issues for Qantas. We also understood the genuine concerns of workers about their jobs. We wanted them to talk seriously about both issues.