Linda White (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For 25 years I've represented airline workers, and for 25 years I watched successive coalition governments ignore workers who didn't work at Qantas. In 2001 when Ansett collapsed, the then Howard government ignored the loss of jobs of those Ansett workers—some might say in favour of Qantas. In 2020 it happened again. When Virgin was about to be put into administration, the then government turned its back on those Virgin workers and did absolutely nothing to assist Virgin in its recovery. Again, those Virgin workers absolutely thought that the coalition government was benefiting Qantas workers over Virgin.

Then we also look, though, at what happened with the sacking of the 1,700 transport workers and what the then coalition government did about that. They sat back and supported an illegal act by Qantas. So throwing at this government that we are somehow captive of Qantas is a bit akin to the pot calling the kettle black, as far as I can see, because the long history that I have witnessed first hand has seen successive coalition governments favouring the interests of Qantas—not Qantas workers but Qantas—over other airlines in this country. So it's a bit rich, I think, to make those accusations because, when I look at the history, it just doesn't support those sorts of accusations.

I was fortunate enough to sit on the inquiry into air services. Again, sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but I listened to a range of evidence about what happened with those air services agreements and the history of how air services agreements have been negotiated. They are a valuable commodity for a country. You have to look at how you deal with them, who flies here and what negotiations you have with not only governments but also the airlines of those governments, and many, many governments across this world take a different view of how they deal with them. As a country, they look at their national interest, and what they weigh up can be different.

Let's talk about Canada. Canada absolutely refused to do air services agreements with Qatar. Is that in the report? No. Does it mention how Canada looked at its national interests! Let's talk about what the US does. The US will not allow any non-US owned airline to flight domestically.

In Australia, what do we do? Foreign carriers can fly. They do not have to be Australian owned. The only one that has to be 51 per cent Australian owned because of the Qantas sale ad is Qantas, but every other airline that flies domestically here—let's talk Rex Airlines who is wholly owned by a Singaporean company—can fly wherever they like and they're foreign-owned! That doesn't get a mention at all in this report.

When you weigh up the national interest, you weigh up a range of different things—and that is what this minister has done—what was failed to be appreciated is that the national interest is complex, it can change from time to time and it is absolutely influenced by what is going on around us, and that just did not come out in the Senate inquiry. Sorry! There was evidence about it, but it was ignored. Hence, the dissenting report that I was proud to support and why I speak on this 'take note'. Air services agreements are a complex issue, and it was not appreciated.