Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

I want to start by talking about the competitiveness of our aviation sector. What we're seeing is a dire situation here in Australia. Whether it's for leisure or for their commerce, or for work, where Australians need to travel across the country—of course, needing to make use of the flights that are provided by our domestic suppliers—we're seeing a significant rise in costs. Prices went up, naturally, during COVID. We can all understand that, but they haven't come down to the degree that Australians would expect.

Indeed, internationally, we're seeing significant costs for Australians and also to get visitors here to visit some of our tourist destination hotspots across the country—it's not happening. Yet the Prime Minister, when asked a question about this in question time in the House, said that Australia, arguably, actually has one of the most competitive airline industries. I don't know, maybe it's easier for him because, as Prime Minister, he just gets to fly around on the SPA all the time. He doesn't get to experience what Australians are facing, he's a bit out of touch. Anyone who is booking flights or who needs to travel through airports knows that we don't have the level of servicing that existed prior to the pandemic; be that internationally or domestically, it isn't occurring. The Prime Minister is proving yet again that he is out of touch.

This is a significant problem that needs to be addressed. We're not seeing any action by this government in helping to address this. The fact of the matter is that we have other airlines that want to be able to come into Australia to compete and to provide efficient and economical routes in and out of the country—indeed, possibly within Australia—and this government is not facilitating that. The clanger of the week—and it's only Monday—probably goes to Senator Wong in her answer to the question. She said, 'Those opposite might recall that governments don't have the luxury of focusing on vested interests.' She got quite a rise out of this side, because we see this government, time and again, bowing to vested interests, particularly those of the union movement. We're about to have, no doubt any minute now, the industrial relations legislation in the other place. That's a solution looking for a problem—or the problem is a union problem, of course, which is that union memberships are down. So, in repaying their favours to their vested interests, they're introducing this legislation. But I digress!

The reality is that we need a more competitive space in the area of airlines. The government is more than asleep at the wheel; they're actually complicit, I believe, in not facilitating a more competitive environment for Australian airlines, and even Australians, to be able to engage with a competitive environment that would allow for the cheaper flights, and more flights, that would occur. Come to Western Australia and see this. Not many of those opposite do; I realise that we're a long way away over there and there's only one flight that you can get from Perth to Canberra. It's with one airline—there used to be two that operated—so more needs to be done. More needs to be done to improve the competitiveness of our airline system.

That's why we're calling for an inquiry. We're calling for an inquiry into this situation with Qatar and what seems to be a deliberate decision by this government to block them for anti-competitive reasons. So I encourage the government to adopt this inquiry: bring it on and allow it to happen. It could go into other issues—

Senator Sheldon, I know you would love to delve into some of those issues that are occurring in our airline sector! You would very much enjoy the opportunity, no doubt! So bring it on—bring on this inquiry. Let it happen and let's get some serious investigation into what's going on within our airline sector.

Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't think anyone over on that side of the chamber was listening when Senator Wong, Senator Gallagher and Senator Farrell answered questions about Qatar. Senator Gallagher said that the government had been very clear that the decision on Qatar was made in the national interest. She went on to say that it was made by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government following the same process as Mr McCormack had followed when he was the transport minister and decided to put on hold an application by Qatar Airways. So I'm not quite sure what they're going on about.

Minister King has been very clear about the decision she made. We would also say that Qatar Airways are open to increase capacity, if they want to, right now. That was the answer Minister Gallagher gave. If they chose to put on more seats to Australia, they would be able to do that now. They are able to fly into Adelaide, Avalon, Cairns, Canberra and the Gold Coast. They can also fly large planes into Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. But they're not doing it at the moment.

It might also be useful to remind those opposite that requests for additional capacity are made routinely by governments around the world, including Australia, and those requests are not always granted, including when you were in government. Now that you're in opposition you don't like the decisions.

The minister determined that it was not in Australia's national interest to grant Qatar Civil Aviation Authority's request. That is the right of a minister. It was the right of Minister McCormack when he was the transport minister and it is the right of Minister King now that she is the transport minister. She said that she had not based the decision on any one company's or person's interest; she made the decision in the national interest. She is supporting recovery and sustainable growth in the aviation sector and at the same time doing her best to ensure that when Australians travel overseas they can have confidence about how they'll be treated.

We know that tourism is important for Australia, and it's important that Australians can access international travel. That's why in Australia we have air services agreements with more than 100 countries. Capacity is going up. Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Singapore Airlines—they've all announced more flights. Qatar Airways can operate as many flights as it wants to the secondary gateways, as I outlined before, including Adelaide, Darwin, Canberra, Cairns and the Gold Coast. So I don't understand the opposition from the opposition. Sometimes it's just about finding an opportunity to say no and to have a go at the government for making a decision that is the same decision their minister made when he was in government.

Those over on that side, when they were in government, gave billions of taxpayer dollars to Qantas and received nothing in return, yet they stand there and complain about a decision we made about Qatar which was the same decision they made about Qatar. They oversaw the mass outsourcing of jobs—a labour hire mess—and that drove down wages and conditions across the sector. They commissioned a review into Sydney airport only to spend almost two years sitting on it, leaving it to us to sort out in government. We are in the process of sorting out the mess that they created over the last 10 years. All they want to do is throw stones and have a go at us, when the decisions that we are making are very similar, if not the same, as those they made when they were in government.

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What this debate shows is the government's lip service to the issues of inflation and the cost of living for the Australian people is just that—lip service. When they've had a test, and an opportunity to bring down living costs for Australians, they have buckled and taken the side of big businesses in this country rather than that of Australian families who just want to save some money and go home to see their families in Europe, even taking a holiday if they can afford to do that. The government does not care about those people because the modern Labor Party is reflexively on the side of big business. Their reflex action is to support the big businesses of this nation.

It's a shame Senator Tony Sheldon had had to leave this chamber because I feel sorry for him. He has manfully taken up the charge against Qantas and its disgraceful treatment of many of its workers over the years, including during the pandemic. It treats its baggage handlers like rubbish. Alan Joyce has done that. The Senator has been trying to hold Qantas to account for this, and as soon as the government have a decision that could potentially introduce some competition and make Qantas actually compete for its customers to provide a better service, the government takes the side of Alan Joyce—the big boss who is paid tens of millions of dollars. They take his side, not the workers' side and certainly not the Australian consumers' side. Their risible arguments in this chamber tonight don't deserve the description of 'arguments'—they are simply the talking point of Qantas that have been written on a sheet for them to read out. It's embarrassing for them to have to do it.

The idea here that was put by my esteemed colleague before is that somehow it is just us—it's just the opposition taking this position on the Qatar Airways decision. Nothing could be further from the truth. Labor state governments are against this decision—both Queensland and South Australia have asked the government to review this decision. The Labor Party's own national president, Mr Wayne Swann, has come out and asked for the government to review this crazy, inexplicable decision. Explain that! Explain why so many people are opposed. Now the government is resting back on the fact that a few years ago a coalition minister when presented with this issue didn't say no to Qatar Airways—he just put a pause on it and considered it. Eventually, those fights were allowed, but the minister at the time paused to consider it. That's very different to the decision made here. The circumstances then—pre-pandemic, pre the inflationary breakout we have seen—are very different too. Prices for overseas flights have gone up by more than 50 per cent since COVID. It's a very different environment that the coalition faced at the time, calling for a very different response. I can't remember, back when Mr McCormick made the decision, any opposition to his decision to hold and get more information on the Qatar Airways flight. Whereas now you have pretty much every sector of the Australian community united against this decision, including Labor's own politicians in other jurisdictions.

I'm sure there are a lot of ministers over there very upset with this as well. There would be a lot of discussion in the cabinet tonight about this decision because they are paying a heavy price for this decision. People have found them out. Over the past year, we've heard from the Prime Minister that he is going to act and do something on the cost of living. They have their tired lines that they're doing something on child care, on pharmacies—but have childcare costs gone down for people? Are you paying less for medicines? It doesn't seem so—everything seems to be going up. When they have been tested, and could have made a decision that would have materially lowered prices for the Australian people, they failed. This government have failed and people are waking up to that now. They're waking up to the fact they're not actually on their side. They are much more comfortable swanning around with big businesses in this nation than dealing with the tough issues that Australian families are facing.

We have a situation where they don't like the Qatar flights but, as we heard in question time today, the Deputy Prime Minister seems using our military aircraft as his own personal taxi service. He has racked up $3.6 million in fees in next to no time. How has this happened? He won't explain to the Australian people. He has been completely unaccountable. All the rumours are that he's using it to fly from Avalon to Canberra when there's a perfectly good commercial airport just an hour down the road from where he lives—in Geelong. I have to drive nearly an hour to get to the airport—nearly 45 minutes. Many of my colleagues in the cities have to drive more. Why is the Deputy Prime Minister using it, allegedly? He won't tell us. I think we deserve to know. It's your money. It's the taxpayers' dollars. Why aren't they telling us what the Deputy Prime Minister is doing with the aircraft you pay for? People are struggling right now and they deserve leaders in this place who at least try to share those struggles and certainly try to do something about it. This government is doing nothing about the cost-of-living crisis facing Australian families, and nothing could spell that out clearer than they decision and refusal to take Australians' side rather than Qantas's side on the Qatar Airways decision.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, this is week 1 of a two-week sitting of parliament, and we're straight back into faux outrage hour here in the Senate. You guys need a credibility check. Where was your outrage, how loud were your voices and how sincere was your concern when your mate former minister McCormack made exactly the kind of decision that you are so aghast at here today? You need a credibility check. This is faux outrage, and we see it time and time again in Senate question time, where you come in here and question decisions made by the government and policies the government is undertaking when you never had the courage or the guts to question anything in your government which touched on these areas. These are the same decisions you made in government.

Perhaps today, instead of criticising Minister Catherine King, who said quite clearly that she made these decisions in the national interest, and playing up your faux outrage, some self-reflection would be appropriate—some self-reflection on some of the decisions the former government made on the aviation sector, particularly during COVID, such as the decision to sit idly by and watch Virgin Australia collapse into administration. I don't remember outrage or a chorus of concern from those opposite when that happened, or when you oversaw the mass outsourcing of jobs and the labour hire mess that saw wages go down and conditions lessen across the aviation sector—I don't remember an hour in this place dedicated to your outrage then—or when you commissioned the Harris review into Sydney Airport, only to sit on it, or, indeed, when you denied workers at dnata JobKeeper, leaving those workers and their families in the lurch. I don't remember a single minute of debate that you devoted to what was happening to those workers at dnata when the aviation sector was in trouble.

You had the opportunity in government to make different decisions when it came to the aviation sector, and you have the opportunity now. You have the opportunity now, indeed, when it comes to the breadth of issues across our industrial system and to our Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill. You have the opportunity to turn some of this faux outrage into real concern about some of the things which have happened and continue to happen in the aviation sector, which this government is taking action and introducing legislation on. We are closing loopholes like those on labour hire, which are seeing companies use labour hire to undercut their agreements with their workers. You have the opportunity to change your position and change your mind on loopholes that affect casual workers and leave people stuck classified as casuals when they don't want to be. Of course, among all the devastating loopholes you have the opportunity to engage in a little self reflection on, there are the loopholes in the gig sector which have seen, over the past decade, workers being subjected to unsafe conditions and paid less than $10 an hour. Some of these workers have told Senate committees they're being paid as little as $6 an hour, leading to dangerous conditions, because we know there is a link between what you get paid and your safety at work in this sector. You have an opportunity to close these loopholes now too.

In this moment of faux outrage, reflect on what you have overseen in the aviation sector and what you allowed to happen on your watch when it came to things like labour hire, job security, protecting Australian industry and competition in the market. You oversaw the collapse of Virgin Australia. That's a pretty significant risk to competition in the aviation sector in this country. You have an opportunity to turn faux outreach hour into real concern; you have an opportunity to get behind the government's legislation which will be coming into this place to close loopholes; you have an opportunity to be a part of strengthening a sector you seemed to be so concerned about today in question time; and you have an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of some of the workers in our country who are subjected to the most dangerous conditions—conditions which we in this country have fought over many, many decades to avoid in every other sector. Companies are completely undermining basic principles like the minimum wage. You have opportunity to turn your faux outrage here into action, and I welcome you doing that. Let's have an hour on real reform in the aviation sector and what we can do on IR.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I give you the call, Senator McGrath, I note, from the whips, that you will split your time between yourself and One Nation, so I ask for the clocks to be set for three minutes.

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

The opposition is calling upon Labor to stand up and explain the policy behind the decision to restrict information concerning the details of politicians' flights. This is of particular importance because we seem to have had the Deputy Prime Minister use the Royal Australian Air Force as a golf buggy to transport his golf clubs around this country. We have a Deputy Prime Minister in this country who is echoing Donald Trump in becoming more concerned about golf and his golf clubs and use of official transport to transport golf clubs around this country than focusing on policy. The Deputy Prime Minister of this country has spent $3.6 million of taxpayers' money flying around the country, flying around the world.

It may be the case that these flights are legitimate, but we don't know because the government will not release the information about these flights. Now, $3.6 million is a lot of money. It is a Lotto win. You can retire. If you win the Lotto on Saturday night then you don't have to turn up for work on Monday, so it is a good lot of money. He has spent $3.6 million over 16 months. I pulled out the calculator and that is $225,000 a month on flights. That is $56,000 a week on flights. That is $8,000 a day on flights.

It may be the case that all of these flights are appropriate. It is important for security reasons that politicians in the senior levels of government are transported around the country but it is not important transport for your golf clubs to be transported around the country. As important, as expensive and as nice as those golf clubs may be, I think the taxpayers of this country have a right to know whether or not the Deputy Prime Minister has been using the Royal Australian Air Force to transport his golf clubs around this country. We the taxpayers, the people who pay for the politicians in this place, have a right to know whether the Deputy Prime Minister is more concerned with lowering his handicap than lowering the bill he sends to taxpayers for his use of taxpayer funded flights.

The opposition will be following up to the government over coming weeks on the use of these flights, trying to get the information from the government, because it is the right of the taxpayers to know how their money is being spent.

Question agreed to.