Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I don't think anyone over on that side of the chamber was listening when Senator Wong, Senator Gallagher and Senator Farrell answered questions about Qatar. Senator Gallagher said that the government had been very clear that the decision on Qatar was made in the national interest. She went on to say that it was made by the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government following the same process as Mr McCormack had followed when he was the transport minister and decided to put on hold an application by Qatar Airways. So I'm not quite sure what they're going on about.

Minister King has been very clear about the decision she made. We would also say that Qatar Airways are open to increase capacity, if they want to, right now. That was the answer Minister Gallagher gave. If they chose to put on more seats to Australia, they would be able to do that now. They are able to fly into Adelaide, Avalon, Cairns, Canberra and the Gold Coast. They can also fly large planes into Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. But they're not doing it at the moment.

It might also be useful to remind those opposite that requests for additional capacity are made routinely by governments around the world, including Australia, and those requests are not always granted, including when you were in government. Now that you're in opposition you don't like the decisions.

The minister determined that it was not in Australia's national interest to grant Qatar Civil Aviation Authority's request. That is the right of a minister. It was the right of Minister McCormack when he was the transport minister and it is the right of Minister King now that she is the transport minister. She said that she had not based the decision on any one company's or person's interest; she made the decision in the national interest. She is supporting recovery and sustainable growth in the aviation sector and at the same time doing her best to ensure that when Australians travel overseas they can have confidence about how they'll be treated.

We know that tourism is important for Australia, and it's important that Australians can access international travel. That's why in Australia we have air services agreements with more than 100 countries. Capacity is going up. Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Singapore Airlines—they've all announced more flights. Qatar Airways can operate as many flights as it wants to the secondary gateways, as I outlined before, including Adelaide, Darwin, Canberra, Cairns and the Gold Coast. So I don't understand the opposition from the opposition. Sometimes it's just about finding an opportunity to say no and to have a go at the government for making a decision that is the same decision their minister made when he was in government.

Those over on that side, when they were in government, gave billions of taxpayer dollars to Qantas and received nothing in return, yet they stand there and complain about a decision we made about Qatar which was the same decision they made about Qatar. They oversaw the mass outsourcing of jobs—a labour hire mess—and that drove down wages and conditions across the sector. They commissioned a review into Sydney airport only to spend almost two years sitting on it, leaving it to us to sort out in government. We are in the process of sorting out the mess that they created over the last 10 years. All they want to do is throw stones and have a go at us, when the decisions that we are making are very similar, if not the same, as those they made when they were in government.