Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his question. Qantas has confirmed that the first time it advised the government that there was any consideration of a lockout of its workforce and a grounding of the fleet was after 2 pm on Saturday. The government acted immediately. By 10 pm the government was with the office of Fair Work Australia seeking a stop to this decision. Just over 24 hours later, we had the decision that ensured that Qantas planes returned to the air on Monday afternoon. Today Qantas is back, running its full schedule. The parties have 21 days to get an agreement done and the government calls upon both Qantas and the trade unions to bargain in good faith during this time and get this deal done in the interests of Qantas and in the interests of its workforce. Both parties must show some maturity. The response of the community to this proposed lockout and grounding has been extraordinary, because when you lock out a workforce and shut down an airline you also lock out the customers. So we need to make sure that this deal gets done.

We know—because Qantas has confirmed it—when we were told. The Leader of the Opposition yesterday confirmed that he was called about the specific 5 pm grounding on Saturday. What he has not said is when he was told that they were considering locking out the workforce and grounding their fleet.

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