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

This is all very public phrasing that has been used outside of this chamber and in Senate estimates and right through the inquiry process. So for the government to somehow now be feeling very sensitive to phrases that have been used in this chamber and in the committees of this chamber for the last eight weeks I find incredible. But I do take that the government should be sensitive, particularly after the AGM results for the Qantas Group, where shareholders made very, very clear the fact that they were not happy with the behaviour of the board, of the former CEO and of the current senior management in how they've conducted their duties. They've illegally sacked 1,700 workers, they're before the ACCC for anticompetitive behaviour and they tried to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars of COVID flight credits of their loyal customers. The reputation of a once proud brand, a national carrier, has been trashed and, with it, the reputation of the Labor government, which continues to run a protection racket, refusing to answer questions on notice—a minister who refuses to front up and give the real reasons she refused Qatar Airways' application when her own department recommended that those negotiations begin, to put downward pressure on international flights to Europe through the Middle East, to give Australians more choice of destination. Minister King has refused to give the real reason. An entire protection racket has been run.

In the AGM for Qantas Group last week, something was released that, again, we tried to get to the bottom of through the processes and procedures of the Senate during the select committee inquiry, and that was how much Qantas actually expended to support the Prime Minister's 'yes' campaign for the referendum. It's very expensive to take planes out of service. It's very expensive to shift them from doing the task of shifting product and people around our nation as efficiently as possible and fly them to where they're going to be repainted or repurposed, shall we say, as the flag bearers for the 'yes' campaign in the aviation sector—to strip the paint, to repaint, to apply the special livery and to warehouse the planes until the special launch with Alan Joyce and the Prime Minister and all the elites in the hangar. They couldn't wait to celebrate the launch of the Qantas Group's 'yes' campaign planes. It actually cost $370,000 to support that, but that doesn't take in the opportunity lost and how many additional cancellations and delays occurred because those planes were taken out of service during that time.

These are the types of questions that we sought to get answers on from the government and from Qantas during the select committee inquiry, and again the minister refused to allow her officials from the department to answer legitimate questions on behalf of the Australian people. My office has been flooded—and I know other senators' offices have been flooded—with emails concerned about that relationship, concerned that this government does not have their back during a cost-of-living crisis. There are decisions that could be made today to bring relief, and this government is more interested in tripping the light fantastic on red carpets—not just here at home but around the globe—than dealing with the very real pressures Australian travellers and the Australian community are feeling.

With respect to the bill before us today, it would ensure that, if our tardy Treasurer couldn't find a pen to write to the ACCC to give them the direction, this essential reporting decision would be able to happen without him having to find a pen or a typewriter. Canberra Airport CEO Mr Byron said:

I think the fact that Qantas is able to capture 80 per cent of the profit pool means that they are [inaudible] the strongest player, and massively dominant, like a monopolist. Qantas quite clearly are the price leaders and they seem to have led the prices up. They control the market, and everyone else gets the scraps.

It didn't matter who we heard from in the inquiry. The only witness who did not want this reporting mechanism reinstated was the Qantas Group. It beggars belief that the government had to be dragged kicking and screaming—embarrassed publicly—and that they were once again standing beside their men—Alan Joyce, Richard Goyder, Mr Finch and all the other fabulous senior executives who have turned their back on the Australian public. They were quite prepared to give Alan Joyce the golden parachute and quite prepared to vote against him coming back and facing up to the Australian public's very real questions that this chamber has a responsibility to ask him.

Instead, you shut down the ACCC reporting and you won't bring Alan Joyce back in front of this committee, which is against the Australian peoples' wishes. It begs the question: why? What have you got to be afraid of? What are you hiding? Australians have a right to know why you continue to protect a corporate who, according to the CEO of Canberra Airport, controls the market because of their dominant position and their anticompetitive behaviour that's on display for everyone to see. Everyone has got a story about losing bags, cancelled and delayed flights, and tickets through the roof because Qantas isn't subjected to enough competition. It's not just in the Qatar Airways decision—it is here in the domestic market as well—yet this government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to make an announcement that they would agree with the committee they tried to shut down so many times—to reinstate recommendation 4—but it hasn't been done.

This is a chance for the Labor Party to back their press release and back the bill put forward by Senator Dean Smith and me, which delivers on recommendation 4 of the bilateral aviation inquiry, so that we can get the ACCC once again monitoring cancellations and delays and making that transparent and public, instead of hiding behind a press release that hasn't actually achieved anything and hasn't delivered what they said it would. I think it's incredibly disappointing because Australians right now want a government that has their back, not one that hangs out with elites and spends hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money on a referendum that was comprehensively rejected—it was supported by Qantas Group. As we heard in the inquiry, when I asked Mr Goyder who made that decision, it was a decision of senior management—it was a decision of the former CEO, Alan Joyce.

I want to ask the Labor Party, the government: why do you keep protecting this guy? Why do you keep protecting Qantas from greater competition and more transparency and accountability? Why do you keep refusing to bring Alan Joyce before this chamber's committees so that he can actually answer the questions that tens of thousands of Australian travellers rightfully have? He was the one, hand in glove with the Prime Minister, who made these decisions that have left Australian travellers poorer. I recommend you support the bill.