Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As far as I remember the question—given all the interruptions between its being asked and my rising!—the answer is no. I have made it clear publicly and to the Senate that the government acted on the advice provided by the department about the best method for us to bring to an end the industrial disputation at Qantas following the decision of Qantas to lock out its employees—lock out thousands of its workers—and begin notifying them that it would do that from 8 pm on Monday. As we know, Qantas then took the action of grounding its aircraft from 5 pm on Saturday. Our advice was that the best way of bringing the issue to a head and getting orders to terminate the action was to apply, under section 424 of the act, for Fair Work Australia to make orders ending the bargaining period and terminating all industrial action. That was the advice we were given. That was the advice we accepted. We moved immediately to make that application to Fair Work Australia and, as we know, Fair Work Australia convened at 9 pm on that Saturday evening to begin immediately to deal with it.

So that was the advice the government received, and we acted upon it. The references Senator Abetz made are references to an explanation we were provided with as to why using that section was preferable to using section 431. That was the legal advice the department provided to the government. It included concerns about potential judicial review and issues of procedural fairness that might apply to the use of section 431. Based on the advice we got, we took that decision—and it worked.