Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for that very pertinent and timely reminder, Mr Acting Deputy President. Is it other sections of the government who realise that this close political and personal relationship between Prime Minister Albanese and former CEO Alan Joyce and, indeed, Qantas more broadly is a dampener on their political and electoral success? That's because it isn't just the Australian public that's had enough of Qantas and the lack of competition in our aviation industry; it's a state Labor premier, Roger Cook; a state Labor deputy premier, Steven Miles; a state Labor president, former treasurer Wayne Swan; and others who are calling this out for the hoax it is. It's the reason why this government is running as fast as it can from providing an actual answer to the questions.

As she released a green paper which says we've got one of the least competitive aviation sectors, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has once again today directly contradicted the Prime Minister's public commentary about having the most competitive aviation sector in the world. Former ACCC chairman Rod Sims said, 'If there was a time to allow new entrants in, this is it.' The transport minister has claimed that the decision was made in the national interest. However, we now know that the Prime Minister wasn't aware of the decision and only yesterday discovered that the minister made the decision on 10 July. This raises a lot of questions. This was a decision that University of Sydney academics say is going to cost our country $1 billion. I have to tell you, you have to go to the Expenditure Review Committee if you're a cabinet minister wanting $100 million to spend on a program to benefit the Australian people. This minister made a decision that's going to cost our country $1 billion and apparently can't tell us who she consulted with. I would have hoped she'd have consulted with the Minister for Trade and Tourism to understand those implications—the opportunities or otherwise—of providing more freight capacity. I would have thought she'd have consulted with the Treasurer about the modelling that this additional capacity would bring—the benefits to our tourism industry and the productivity gains that would be made.

When we talk about having a zero in front of our productivity growth, what is the productivity of having cancellations and delays going in the wrong direction in this country? Businesses and travellers are building into their travel plans the fact that they will probably have to stay overnight. You'd better take enough cash in your pockets to buy some clean jocks, a toothbrush and a clean suit for tomorrow because—heaven knows!—your bag won't end up with you. That is all a drag on productivity. Fifty flights out of Canberra are cancelled each and every month. It just beggars belief. The Prime Minister didn't know when the decision was made, and the minister seems to be either misleading the parliament or being very remiss with her memory, to the point where she didn't think to consult either the Prime Minister or the former shadow minister on such a significant issue.

I thank the crossbench in particular for the setting up of the select committee today under absolute duress from the Labor Party over the last four days. They've been absolutely strongarming, but the crossbench held true to transparency and accountability to get to the bottom of this, to make sure we air all the issues and we can develop some great recommendations about not just this poor decision by the government but, indeed, by the aviation industry more broadly.

I've already gone to the various reasons given for this decision. I saw Catherine King fumbling this morning at Canberra Airport around the human rights aspect of her decision. I wonder if she consulted with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I wonder whether she told the Qatari government or Qatar Airways that she'd decided to cancel or reject their application before she'd told others. When you're running a government, you can't just make decisions in a silo, because you're representing all of us on the international stage. It has significant implications for our diplomatic relations if you get it wrong, which I suggest the government might have. It was human rights. She was going to decarbonise aviation by not allowing those extra 28 flights in. Wow! Well done with that, Minister. You're decarbonising aviation by not allowing 28 flights, at the same time that the government have been arguing they're welcoming more flights. They think these flights might have more carbon emissions than all the other flights from the Middle East. It's not in the national interest, but she can't tell you what is. She can't tell you the criteria she used.

Then we had our fabulous assistant minister for competition and our fabulous Assistant Minister Jones talking about the need to protect Qantas's profits in the same eye-watering week where Qantas announces excessive profits and a remuneration to their CEO which was eye-watering. What a cosy little set-up the former CEO had with the board about being able to roll forward his share options in the bad years and take them in the good years. Gee, wouldn't we all like that kind of bonus remuneration?

There are significant positive impacts of the Qatar Airways proposal, including an extra million seats a year to Europe and the Middle East. That would put immediate downward pressure on airfares. In excess of thousands of dollars would be saved by the travelling public through a million extra seats, and yet the government wanted to stand up and say, 'Well, no, that would not actually have been the result.' Blind Freddy knows that would be the result.

I come from a country community. When we only have one team in town, prices are through the roof. Add another and prices go down. If I get three carriers or, bonus, if I get four, prices drop to the floor and communities can actually travel not just for business or health specialists but to visit family and friends and to participate more fully in the economy. Thousands of primary producers, manufacturers and other businesses are supported by expanding freight capacity and therefore lowering the cost to shift the goods in a timely manner. This government should be doing everything possible to attract and retain more airlines and build their confidence that Australia is a reliable place to do business and that we have demand.

Australians are paying a high price as well as experiencing almost double the rate of flight cancellations and a 70 per cent increase in delayed flights compared to the long-term average. Things are not okay, and this government thinks they can push out the aviation white paper looking at competition in the aviation industry. Thank goodness for that backflip last week. 'We're not going to think about actually making decisions around slots into Sydney and that flexibility that was recommended in the Harris review. We're not going to make that decision until after the white paper is delivered.' That's after the next election. People are dealing with these problems right now. The solutions are right now on that minister's desk, and she seems incapable of or refusing to do her job. It's tough being a minister; I've been there. You've got to make decisions in the national interest and you've got to be able to explain them.

Labor made a mistake in the budget by not extending the direction to the ACCC to continue its monitoring of airlines in Australia. We call once again on the Treasurer to reinstate that monitoring so that we get timely data. I wrote to the Treasurer over two weeks ago requesting that direction, and I know my colleague Mr Smith, shadow minister for competition, has absolutely been calling for more oversight in that area.

Rex's deputy chairman, John Sharp—and thank you for flying into the regions like Qantas and Virgin do—has said about the imbalance of competition in domestic aviation:

Rex's relationship with a company like Qantas is a bit like an ant dancing with an elephant. You've only got to make one misstep, and you're squashed.

And isn't that the truth? We're talking about an aviation market where two players have more than 95 per cent of the market. Even with our supermarkets, for which we complain about Coles and Woolworths a lot, particularly in the National Party about the fair deal that they give or don't give our farmers, it's about 75 to 80 per cent. So this market is even more concentrated than the supermarkets, and yet I've seen minister after minister in the Senate stand up and say, 'It's not a problem; it's competitive.' It isn't, and the data says so.

That is why I'm so glad that the Senate and the public will have the opportunity to hear the evidence, hear the data through the select committee that we have fought to set up, that you have fought to silence. The actual evidence will be out there for everyone to see. This isn't actually about political pointscoring. I know the government's made a big deal of it. 'Oh, you guys had to make this decision. You did this. You did that.'

It is time now, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis with productivity at nearly zero and no plans from this government to improve it, with every single little decision they make sending things in the wrong direction not the right direction. The cumulative impact is significant. I believe that if we can get right the recommendations of this select committee and report back to the Senate on 9 October the government should do the right thing, adopt those recommendations and put downward pressure on airfares so that Australians get a fair go.