James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government (Senator Watt) to questions without notice asked by Senator Chandler today.

At their heart, the questions asked by Senator Chandler of this government come down to two things. The first is transparency and the second is the cost of living. What we saw with the answers that were given by the minister in response to the questions by Senator Chandler was that this government has no interest in transparency. Before the last election, the Leader of the Labor Party promised to lead the most transparent government ever. Well, guess what! That was another broken promise by Labor, because they don't lead the most transparent government ever. In fact, this Labor government is the least transparent government ever. The answers that were given today by the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government really shone a light on the disdain and arrogance and the distasteful approach that the Labor executive takes to being accountable and transparent.

The first question was a very simple one: what role did pressure from Mr Alan Joyce play in the ministerial rejection of the department's advice? This won't surprise those who, due to misfortune, may be listening to this at home, but the minister did not answer that question. Indeed, he attempted to say that the questions by the opposition and the Senate inquiry are a smear campaign against the minister. It is not a smear campaign for members of this chamber to ask questions of the executive. At their core, those questions are about accountability. What it shows to me is that the government has something to hide in relation to this decision-making. The government is just a little bit too defensive about its relationship with Qantas and Mr Alan Joyce.

I would like to say, as someone who flies Qantas a lot, that I think Qantas has thousands of very good Australians who work for it and ensure that millions of Australians get from A to B. But what Qantas isn't doing—and this goes to the second part of the questions that Senator Chandler put to the minister—goes to the cost of living. This country is in a cost-of-living crisis. If you want to go onto qantas.com or the websites of other airlines, you might want to take some heart medication before you open up your internet browser, because flights cost a lot. They cost a hell of a lot in regional Queensland. If you want to fly overseas, you might look at trying to remortgage your house. That is the issue here. Qantas effectively wants to run a cartel in relation to international flights. What Qatar wanted to do was to have more flights come to Australia. This is very basic economics. It's supply and demand. If there is more supply of international flights coming to Australia and leaving from Australia, it means prices will go down. But Qantas doesn't want prices to go down. Qantas wants prices to go up.

That is why the opposition, through the advocacy of the Liberals and Nationals who sit in this chamber, want to get to the nut of why and how the minister made this decision. What information did the minister rely upon? And why won't the minister release that information? Now, it may be there is nothing to hide. But I think that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and there is a murkiness over the government's cohabitation with Qantas, particularly in relation to recent events. I call upon the government to treat the Australian people with respect.