Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to support regional communities and make sure they are better connected to the rest of Australia? Has there been any opposition to the government's approach?

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good question!

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

I thank the member for Leichhardt for the question, and for his continual advocacy for regional Australians. I also note the interjection of the member for Riverina, who might feature in my answer a little too.

I'd like to add how incredibly proud I am to be the member for Ballarat and represent my regional community. In fact, this Labor government represents more regional electorates than any other party in this place—from Cairns to Launnie, from Ballina to Beverley and the many places in between.

We know how crucial it is that regional Australians have access to aviation to access the care they need, to see family and to pursue opportunities. That's why it was very encouraging to see the announcement last week that the sale and implementation deed to purchase Rex Airlines has been entered into by Air T and the administrators. It's a very positive step towards bringing Rex out of administration. I'd like to thank the many hardworking public servants who have worked tirelessly over the past year to try to get this done. We still have a way to go, but it is a very positive development for the future of Rex Airlines.

As this process continues, our priority as a government will remain on protecting regional Australians and their access to these critical services. It's why, when Rex first went into administration, we stepped up to provide a guarantee of regional flight bookings for Rex customers and a loan facility to the administrators to ensure that Rex could continue to fly throughout this process. At the time, this was not wholly supported, with members opposite calling our support for Rex 'a bridge too far' and telling us our support to extend administration so that we could get a solution was 'kicking the can down the road until after the election' to try to hide somehow that Rex would not survive.

But I'm very hopeful that our strong position to support regional Australians will pay off, and our position has been supported by the sector and others. The Australian Airports Association said:

This is a significant development for regional aviation and provides much-needed certainty for communities that rely on essential air services.

The Chair of Airlines for Australia and New Zealand said:

I thank the Australian Government for its tenacity in keeping Rex flying and thereby protecting the airline's vital regional and rural links.

And the member for Riverina said:

I had many conversations with Catherine King and Anthony Albanese about this—

I can confirm that that is the case—

and I thank the government for their work in supporting Rex.

I acknowledge and thank the efforts made by some of those opposite to support the government in our work to bring Rex out of voluntary administration. We'll continue to support the process—we're not quite there yet—and work to ensure regional Australians have access to reliable, affordable and available flights now and into the future.