Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

We are supporting each and every airline through our sector-wide assistance. We are supporting Rex, yes. We are supporting Qantas, yes. We are supporting, very much, Virgin. And we're very pleased that for Virgin there are potentially 19 investors—in fact, potentially even more. Of course, tomorrow the preliminary bids as part of the voluntary administration process—about which I spoke to Paul Scurrah, the CEO of Virgin, this week—are going through, and we've appointed Nicholas Moore to liaise with the voluntary administrators. He's reporting back to Treasury. He's reporting back to me. We want to make sure that we have two commercially viable airlines through this. I'm sure that is the view of everybody in this House.

All of those airlines are supporting workers. There have been many, many workers from Virgin who have contacted me, and I am writing back and personally signing each and every one of those bits of correspondence.

An opposition member interjecting—

Yes, each and every one because they are important to me, as I'm sure they're important to you. We want those jobs. Ten thousand people work for Virgin. I want to make sure that, through this process, as many of those workers still have a job, and I'm sure that view is shared.

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