Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I've got four questions for the government. The first question is: what is the government doing to attract and retain more airlines and build confidence in Australia's aviation industry? The second question is: why has the government decided not to reinstate the ACCC's airline monitoring report, introduced by Josh Frydenberg, then treasurer, as part of the COVID response, which included 12 reports, the final report in June of this year? Why has the government not chosen to reinstate that ACCC report, which I would argue is a key protection for consumers and for competition? The third question is: why has the government chosen to sit idly by and not pursue any of those recommendations that are contained in those ACCC monitoring reports? The fourth question is: who is it that Anthony Albanese is listening to? It's clearly not his Labor Party colleagues in South Australia; he's turned his back on them. It's clearly not his Labor Party colleagues in Queensland; he's turned his back on them. And it's not even Wayne Swan, the former Labor treasurer and now national President of the Australian Labor Party. No, Prime Minister Albanese has turned his back on Wayne Swan, who has said this decision deserves to be reviewed. I would add to that that it deserves to be reviewed in public and not in private.

Why is it that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese doesn't think he has to listen to the former chairman of the ACCC, Rod Sims, who said about the Qatar decision:

I think it does hurt competition.

He went on to say:

… if there was a time to allow new entrants in, this is it.

Why is it that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thinks that he can turn his back on between $540 million and almost $800 million of economic activity? Why does Prime Minister Albanese think that he can turn his back on almost $500 million of tourism and hospitality activity? What is happening in the Prime Minister's head? What's happening in the Treasurer's head? We know what is happening in Andrew Leigh's head. Andrew Leigh—