Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. I refer to Qantas’s $670 million yearly profit, announced today, and CEO Mr Geoff Dixon’s confirmation in announcing the profit that both Qantas and Jetstar will utilise the government’s AWAs. I also refer to the Prime Minister’s statement in the House earlier this week in regard to Jetstar’s AWAs:

… this is not the result of Work Choices; it is the result of the normal operations of the labour market ...

Isn’t it the case that Mr Dixon made clear in October and November last year that Qantas welcomed the government’s legislation and would use AWAs? Minister, isn’t Qantas doing exactly what the government wants it to do under its legislation—embarking on a wages race to the bottom, from Jetstar to Qantas?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In answer to the question from the honourable member for Perth, Qantas is doing what the government wants it to do—that is, creating jobs for Australians. What the opposition does not seem to understand is that Qantas, through the Jetstar subsidiary, just in the last week has created 200 new jobs for Australians. In this debate, the one word you will never uttered hear from the lips of the Leader of the Opposition is ‘jobs’. When did anybody in Australia last hear the Leader of the Opposition or the Labor Party talk about jobs? To quote Mr Dixon, the CEO of Qantas:

We have created jobs, unlike just about every other airline in the world. We can continue to create jobs if we can change the way we operate further, and we are going to do that.

This government supports Mr Dixon and Qantas in creating jobs.