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

My question is to . This week Qantas sacked 2,000 workers, bringing the total jobs lost by the national carrier to 8,500. Why is the minister for transport congratulating himself and using marketing slogans when 8,500 Qantas workers have lost their jobs this year alone? If the purpose of JobKeeper was to keep employees connected to their employer, why has the government allowed Qantas to claim taxpayer money and then sack thousands of workers, some of whom are in the gallery today?

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

I thank the member for Ballarat for her question. I acknowledge the Qantas workers in the public gallery and I acknowledge Michael Kaine, the secretary of the Transport Workers Union, who I'm seeing after question time. I too am worried about those workers who've lost their jobs. I know what it's like to have lost a job, I do. It's very tough, and you sometimes cannot see the light—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Having asked the question, why don't you give me the respect to answer your question? So just listen to the answer. Because of the downturn in the aviation sector, hit first and hit hardest, when the global pandemic—and it has been a global pandemic—many airline companies right throughout the world have actually closed. We are very fortunate in this country.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Here she goes again! At the start of the global pandemic what we wanted to see were two viable competitive airlines flying domestically at the end as we came out of the back of COVID-19. I can say that, thankfully, that's what we have now. Virgin came into the pandemic, saddled with billions of dollars of debt. I'm pleased that through Bain Capital and the assistance that has been provided they are still flying. Next week Virgin will be flying, Rex will be flying, Qantas will be flying. Yes, albeit in a limited fashion, but JobKeeper has helped keep these airlines flying. The Domestic Aviation Network Support has helped those companies fly. The Regional Airline Network Support program has helped those regional aviation companies fly. For those 35 towns that would otherwise not have had respiratory devices, face masks, even medical personnel visit them, they were able to get that assistance thanks to the RANS assistance that was provided. There was $2.7 billion on a sector-wide basis. Everything that we've done has been on a sector-wide basis.

I hope those Qantas workers who don't have a job are able to return to their places of employment.

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Ballarat will cease interjecting.

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

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said:

We've seen a vast improvement in trading conditions over the past month as many more people are finally able to travel domestically again.

There's been a rush of bookings as each—

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister will just pause for a second. I'm not going to go through everyone interjecting; I will just start ejecting people. A question's been asked. Members will not yell interjections across the chamber. I'm warning everybody who's interjecting. Deputy Prime Minister.

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

Mr Joyce said:

There's been a rush of bookings as each border restriction lifted, showing that there's plenty of latent travel demand across both leisure and business sectors.

Between Qantas and Jetstar, there were over 200,000 fares sold for flights—

Mr Thistlethwaite interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Kingsford Smith will leave the chamber under 94(a).

The member for Kingsford Smith then left the chamber.

The Deputy Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

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

The question went to the 2,000 workers who'd been sacked.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, you need to state the point of order.

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

Relevance. [Inaudible]

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition, the microphone's off.

Mr McCormack interjecting—

Deputy Prime Minister, better just to focus on your answer and let me deal with those matters, okay, without giving traffic directions all over the chamber. The Deputy Prime Minister has the call.

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

Mr Joyce said:

… there were over 200,000 fares sold for flights to Queensland in 72 hours after the border openings with Sydney and Victoria were announced.

So there's the message.