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

I will say this in response: I do not think that Mr Joyce was in any doubt, after having a conversation with me, that the government's view was that he should not ground the fleet. I do not think that he was in any doubt. And, from what I have heard about Minister Albanese's advice to him, I think that he too made it very clear. In fact, I pushed Mr Joyce very hard not to read me his script but to tell me what industrial action was currently occurring at Qantas. The best he could do was to say that I should know that. I did know it. I knew that all industrial action by the engineers had been suspended. I knew that the pilots were taking action: they were wearing red ties and making announcements. And the TWU had had a one-hour stop-work meeting. I asked him whether he thought that justified closing down the airline and causing disruption to thousands of Australians and he would not answer me.