Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I would like to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of the demise of Ansett Airlines. On this day in 2001, the accountants appointed to administer the voluntary administration of Ansett two days earlier determined that Ansett was no longer viable. Its fleet was grounded as were the fleets of its subsidiary companies—Hazelton, Ken­dell, Skywest and Aeropelican—all of which provided services to regional Australians. With that decision we saw the end of an era and, eventually, the end of an airline which is still remembered fondly by most of us but especially by 15,000 employees who worked as part of the Ansett family.

For 66 years, Ansett dominated the Aust­ralian aviation market. It was an iconic, trusted and well-known company, spon­soring major Australian sporting codes including the AFL and cricket, and it was the official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games The company gained worldwide recognition and was well known for its staff who loved their jobs and went beyond the minimum standards of service.

Many books have been written about why Ansett collapsed—with no shortage of reasons claimed. They include a federal government decision to allow foreign airlines to fly on Australian domestic routes; the start of cut price carriers like Impulse and Virgin Blue, some of which survived, some of which did not; the decision of Air New Zealand to buy Ansett when clearly Air New Zealand could not afford it; a top-heavy management structure at Ansett unable to adapt to a changing market; and, poor decisions about fleet purchases and what that meant for maintenance costs. All of these concerns were exacerbated by the events in New York on 11 September 2001, which saw airline travel around the world virtually come to a halt at the worst possible time for Ansett. At the time of its demise, it was losing an estimated $1.3 million per day.

No-one was given any advance warning of the grounding of the fleet. While thousands of passengers were suddenly stranded, many employees, unaware of the situation, turned up for work that day only to be told they were out of a job. Technicians, baggage handlers, check-in staff and flight attendants all suddenly found themselves without an income, without a livelihood, and facing the complete and total loss of their accrued leave and other entitlements.

Working for the Australian Services Union at the time, I worked closely with the Ansett delegates and members in the months prior to the airline's collapse. The ASU was the largest union at Ansett, and on this day in 2001 some 4,500 members lost their jobs. It was devastating to witness these people, many of whom had become my friends, lose their livelihoods overnight.

While the exact figures are unknown, it is estimated that some 40 employees comm­itted suicide in the months following the job losses and an estimated 80,000 people in related industries were also affected. I used to get very annoyed in those days by people who would whinge to me about the 90,000 frequent flyer points they had lost because of the Ansett collapse, when I was dealing every day with people who had lost their jobs. People still whine to me about their lost frequent flyer points and I still lecture them about the lost jobs.

Not everyone was so selfish in the face of the collapse of Ansett. I well remember the huge effort from Ansett staff, workers, businesses, and even other airlines to try to relaunch Ansett as Ansett mark 2. From the collapse in September 2001 until March 2002, efforts were made to get Ansett flying again with limited flights, no frills flights and various enticements to get people back onto the few aircraft that Ansett could get into the air.

Airline staff who had never been politically active became very politically active and donned their uniforms to go to lobby politicians. They campaigned in the federal election in 2001 and fought as hard as any seasoned union official to do what they could to secure their jobs and entitle­ments. Many of us remember the last flight out of Adelaide and the realisation that Ansett was gone forever.

The ASU was not going to stand by and see workers lose their entitlements and so began a long campaign to work with the eventual administrators, KordaMentha, to secure as much as possible for the staff of Ansett who were owed more than $750 million in employment entitlements. The Ansett unions fought collectively to get the employee creditors to the front of the creditors' queue and concerted campaigns forced the then federal government to implement the SEESA program, which advanced $350 million to the administrators and which the government sought to recoup from the $10 per seat levy on Australian airline passengers.

I am proud to let the Senate know this evening that, after a decade of pursuing workers' entitlements, the journey has come to an end for former Ansett workers and for the unions who fought for them, with KordaMentha last month finalising the sale of the last Ansett asset. On the eve of the 10th tenth anniversary of the airline's collapse, the final dividend payment has been made to workers. Over 14 instalments, the average payment of the entitlements to Ansett employees was 96c in every dollar, a huge achievement and a relief after such a long, drawn-out fight, especially after, originally, the workers faced receiving just a fraction of what they were owed. In all, Ansett employees received $727.5 million from the sale of Ansett assets and that makes it the largest ever group administration in Australia's history. While the final payment cannot make up for lost jobs and lost careers, I know that Ansett employees welcomed each of those 14 payments.

Considering the circumstances, the spirit of the Ansett workers has remained, on the whole, positive. Many of the former workers and employees of Ansett remain friends. We come across them all the time working for other airlines and even for Comcar.

Last weekend, across the country, many events were held to mark the 10th anni­versary of the airline's demise. The biggest of those events, a reunion held in Adelaide, attracted an estimated 500 former employees from across Australia and, indeed, from international ports. According to the member for Hindmarsh, Steve Georganas, who attended the event, the reunion was a great success.

Ten years on , let us hope we have learnt some lessons about corporate incompetence and government inaction and the devastating effects it can have on working people. We have certainly learnt the value of working people sticking together when adversity strikes.

Senate adjourned at 19: 38