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

The senator really answers his own question in the course of asking it. What the Prime Minister was saying during those various periods was that we were not picking sides. We encouraged the parties to negotiate in good faith and use the services of Fair Work Australia if they needed them, but to resolve the dispute. That was exactly the sort of advice that both the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Mr Albanese, and I were giving. So the government has been totally consistent throughout on that matter. When there have been inappropriate comments like those made by the Secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association—he made some totally inappropriate comments—at least three ministers, I think, spoke publicly criticising those comments as being inappropriate and not helpful to good industrial relations. The Prime Minister, quite rightly, regarded the decision by Qantas to lock out thousands of its employees—most of whom were not undertaking industrial action currently—from their places of work as extreme. At 8 o'clock on Monday night it was going to lock out thousands of its employees, most of whom, as I said, were not taking industrial action currently and some of whom were taking industrial action that consisted of wearing non-uniform ties. We regard that as extreme. I think most people in Australian industrial relations regarded it as a fairly extreme step. Even those who supported it would argue that it was a very extreme step. It is the equivalent of an all-out strike by all employees of an employer shutting down their industry. It is the employers' equivalent. You would have been highly critical of a walkout of all the trade unions and all their members and you would have described that as extreme, and rightly so. The Prime Minister is perfectly accurate in describing Qantas's actions as extreme.