Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Airline Passenger Protections (Pay on Delay) Bill 2024. I want to start by making it clear that the Albanese government is very supportive of ensuring businesses are accountable to their workers and their customers. It won't come as a surprise to anyone that I personally am very supportive of that principle, especially when it comes to Qantas. What I find astonishing is that Senator McKenzie is now claiming to be worried about the way Qantas behaves, because we never heard a peep out of Senator McKenzie and her colleagues in the Liberal and National parties in the nine years they were in government. At all of the times and in all of the ways that Qantas ripped off its customers or its staff during those nine years, there was no interest from those opposite.

In fact, not only did they not take any action against Qantas; they had to go one step further. It wasn't enough for the Liberals and Nationals to stand by and do nothing when Qantas was illegally sacking 1,700 people. Those opposite had to take the extra step of giving Qantas a $2 billion no-strings-attached handout. And we've seen how much of the taxpayer money so generously doled out by Senator McKenzie and her colleagues has ended up in the pockets of Alan Joyce and his sycophants. It would be funny, wouldn't it—except for the fact that the very behaviour this bill was complaining about was being financially rewarded by the very authors of the bill.

Of course, those opposite haven't turned over a new page at all. It was only last year we saw their true colours come through. At the hearing on the closing loopholes bill on 10 November, Senator McKenzie said:

I do personally find it offensive that you made an assertion that I support the Qantas Group underpaying wages … I am not on a unity ticket with Qantas and Alan Joyce when it comes to ripping off Qantas workers through labour hire … And I do ask you to withdraw that because I never have and never will.

There you have it: she never has supported and never will support Qantas ripping off workers through labour hire. Fortunately, you don't have to take my word or her word for it, because just a few weeks later we had a vote on legislation to close the Qantas labour hire loophole. What did Senator McKenzie and her colleagues in the Liberals and Nationals do? How did they vote? They came into the chamber one by one and voted against the legislation. They truly swore their fealty to Alan Joyce and Qantas and their labour hire loophole. It's a matter of public record for all eternity. Talk is cheap. Action is what really matters. By voting against the legislation, you have proven you have no interest in fixing the aviation industry.

Let's take the case of the 1,700 Qantas workers illegally sacked in 2021. Just this week 1,700 people and the Transport Workers Union have taken court action to determine compensation. This government intervened in the case on behalf of those workers. What did the previous government do? Minister McCormack said illegally sacking 1,700 people was 'in the best interests of the company going forward'. Christian Porter said illegally sacking 1,700 people was 'a good model'. Senator Cash said of illegally sacking 1,700 people, 'Qantas are entitled to make those decisions.' That's the record of those opposite on Qantas.

I want to go to the evidence provided by the bilateral air service agreements committee in September. I was on the committee and so was the late Senator Linda White. Between us we both have a bit of experience in taking on airline bosses. Through that inquiry we heard from Damien Pollard. Mr Pollard was one of the 1,700 illegally sacked workers who were abandoned and left for dead by those opposite. Here is what Mr Pollard told the inquiry about the level of support he received from those opposite in his struggle against Qantas management:

Mr Morrison refused to meet us, and I can remember that quite clearly. It's very hard to explain that we actually felt abandoned by the government of the time because nobody would meet with us, except for the Labor opposition. The Morrison government offered no support, and they continued to praise Qantas and say that it was a decision for Qantas. That feeling of abandonment was quite striking. I can remember, many times, various politicians and prime ministers saying, 'We will govern for everybody,' and we just felt that nobody wanted to tackle Qantas. We were left to sink or swim until … the Labor opposition came in, as well as the TWU, and started supporting us.

Mr Pollard went on to say:

Scott Morrison, as I said before, refused to meet with us. Michael McCormack did meet me once. He said he could look for some support service hotlines for us. I also remember quite clearly that he told me the best thing that ever happened to him was being retrenched in his early 40s. I thought at that time, 'It may have worked for you, but it's not working for a lot of my colleagues.' I thought it was rather a strange comment.

He went on to say:

It seems quite strange to say, but the gentleman who we met with that day seemed more interested in telling his own story than listening to our story. That was the common consensus amongst the other delegates who attended that meeting that day.

So that was the experience of Qantas workers desperately trying to get support from those opposite in their fight against Alan Joyce and Qantas. It is in that context that I look at this bill before the Senate today. At every previous opportunity when those opposite had an opportunity to rein in Qantas, they instead egged their behaviour on. When given the opportunity to save Ansett and Virgin from bankruptcy, those opposite let them collapse while being more than happy to pump $2 billion into Qantas. When this government—this government—intervened in the High Court to support the 1,700 illegally sacked Qantas workers, those opposite opposed it. When we closed the Qantas labour loophole, those opposite sat on their hands and opposed it.

It is clear this bill is nothing more than a political stunt. In nine years, those opposite have had no plan for the aviation industry, no reforms to make the industry fairer for the travelling public or for the people who work in the industry. Together with Senator Sterle, I led an inquiry into the future of the aviation sector throughout 2021 which finished shortly before the 2022 election. That inquiry looked extensively at the workforce challenges facing the industry, including the long-term impact of Qantas's aggressive outsourcing and labour hire strategy. The two coalition senators on that committee said in their dissenting report that looking at those workforce issues was a waste of time and a failure to properly examine genuine aviation industry issues.