Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

As I've repeatedly said, these are routine decisions of government. There's nothing remarkable about transport ministers making decisions on international air service agreements to reflect our national interest. I've done it, we did it when we were last in office and former ministers opposite did exactly the same. I acknowledge that the member for Riverina is noting that.

On 10 July, I took the decision not to agree to Qatar Civil Aviation Authority's request to double, by 28 services a week, the number of flights from Australia's four major airports—four times any request that has ever been granted before. I informed the Prime Minister—

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