Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Durack who, arguably, would travel longer by air than anyone to be here week by week. She fully understands the importance of aviation in regional communities and in linking regional Australia to the rest of the nation.

The aviation sector is vital to the national economy. It behoves us all to take note when the aviation industry has reported a loss in the first half year for the first time in more than a decade. The reality is that the carbon tax is bleeding this industry. The carbon tax is adding to its costs—costs which cannot be added on to consumers. The cost is not just the direct cost that the airlines have to pick up through their fuel bills but it is also the impact on tourism, and the fact that we have been made less competitive as a country as a result of the carbon tax.

There is the mining tax as well. It means that fewer people fly, and so the airlines have been left in a less profitable position. The CEO of Virgin nailed it, John Borghetti, when he made it absolutely clear that it was the carbon tax that was the most important thing that governments could do to make a difference to the airlines, and that it was making a substantial contribution to Virgin's drop in profitability.

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