Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak to this urgency motion put forward by the coalition. We all know what is at the core of this motion: the decision of the government to block Qatar Airways from expanding their operations in Australia. This decision directly benefits Qantas, a company that just weeks ago posted its biggest profit ever, after being weeks away from bankruptcy during the pandemic and relying on the government to bail it out. It is a company that is facing seemingly endless complaints about delays, cancellations, poor service, anticompetitive measures and poor working conditions. A company that was once known as 'the spirit of Australia' is becoming known as 'the spirit of corporate greed'.

Following the pandemic, our domestic tourism industry was shattered. This was compounded by the 2019-20 bushfires and major floods in just about every state. We need to support our domestic tourism industry. We need people to be exploring in their own backyard. Because Australia is so large, the reality is that we need air travel to do this—I agree with Senator Brockman's comments—but it's expensive. In a cost-of-living crisis, people can't afford the high fares that we are seeing right now, and this is especially true for my home state of Western Australia.

One way that this could be addressed is through the ACCC's airline monitoring regime—thank you, Senator Smith—to protect consumers and promote competition, because what we are seeing from our national airline is not in the best interests of consumers and is inherently anticompetitive. Thank you to Senator Dean Smith for bringing forward this matter of urgency today. The Greens support it.