Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is important that Australians can access international travel and tourists can visit our shores. That's why we have an air services agreement with more than 100 countries, and that's why capacity is going up. As you yourself said, Senator Birmingham, Cathay Pacific, China Southern and Singapore Airlines have announced more flights. I again remind those opposite—and I'm surprised Senator Birmingham doesn't get on the same ticket as me and start to argue for more flights by Qatar in and out of Adelaide—Qatar has no capacity constraints when flying to our secondary gateways. They could fly larger planes into our primary gateways if they chose to.

Senator Birmingham mentions Qantas. I agree with him, and I agree with Peter Malinauskas. We would urge Qantas to reinstate international flights to and from Adelaide—something the Labor state government has been advocating. And I join with the state government in saying that we'd like to see more Qantas flights in and out of Adelaide. (Time expired)