Qantas

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:31): It seems that Qantas has been in free fall since the end of the turbulent Alan Joyce era. The national carrier's once proud brand and reputation has been badly tarnished through a series of scandals, particularly from the COVID era to the present day.

Where do you start? With the hefty penalties imposed following its brutal and ruthless treatment of staff during the pandemic and outsourcing their jobs, while banking hundreds of millions of dollars in JobKeeper that was designed to keep them in their jobs? With their unreliability with cancelled flights at the last minute, selling non-existent flights, substandard service, the obscene $24 million golden handshake the board gave to departing CEO Alan Joyce, which was later slashed by a mere $9 million? With the airline's objection and support for the Albanese government's inexplicable decision to not allow more flights by Qatar Airways, which was judged as the best airline in the world, and which then generated a lame excuse that part of the reason was the treatment of some female Australian passengers at Doha airport after a newborn had been found abandoned in a toilet?

But now we know that Qantas and its former CEO Joyce have enjoyed quite a cosy relationship with Prime Minister Albanese, going back to the days when he was Minister for Transport. The national headlines today will give no comfort to Qantas, nor the floundering prime ministership of Albanese, if the claims by author and journalist Joe Aston in his book The Chairman's Lounge that Albanese asked and got flight upgrades when he was a minister of the Crown are true.

In a train wreck press conference yesterday—probably one of the most embarrassing I have seen from a serving Prime Minister—rattled Albanese stumbled and bumbled his way through the questions fired at him, without being able to refute the allegations. More embarrassing for him and his 11 media advisers was that he even got it terribly wrong when he accused Aston of not declaring conflicts of interest.

His relationship with Qantas and Joyce is certain to be blowtorched when federal parliament resumes next week. It begs the question: whose interest does Qantas, now a publicly listed company, really serve? Its customers or its political masters? Albanese said his government always stood up to Qantas; after the latest revelations, perhaps that should read they 'stood up for Qantas'.

Australians continue to pay very high fares to travel overseas and, for that matter, interstate. The disgraceful decision to not allow more Qatar flights restricts competition. It was to Qantas's advantage, and Joyce lobbied hard to stop them because he claimed it would distort the market. What it has done is keep fares high for Qantas and boosted its bottom line, which is what its shareholders want.

That brings me to Qantas's attitude towards Adelaide and South Australia: they still treat us like some hick country town. It has been more than 10 years since the last international flight operated by Qantas flew out of Adelaide to Singapore. We remain the only mainland capital where the flying kangaroo does not have international flights.

Yesterday, the Premier spruiked the return of Qantas's alliance partner, Emirates, to Adelaide this week. It is a welcome return, and we would like to see more airlines follow suit to give travellers a greater choice of international destinations direct from their own city and to bring down fares; however, now that its partner Emirates is back in town, why would Qantas even want to offer any international flights that can be covered by the UAE carrier? Sure, we have Qantas's discount affiliate Jetstar with flights to Bali, but that is about it. A direct flight to Tokyo would not be a bad idea.

Former Labor Treasurer Kevin Foley revealed on radio yesterday that Joyce, when he was CEO of Jetstar, approached him and Premier Mike Rann about making Adelaide a Jetstar hub. They rejected the offer, and for good reason. Only as recently as July this year, Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace and group CEO Vanessa Hudson revealed a shortlist of new international routes to fly with the new planes they have on order, destinations like Seattle, Las Vegas, Chicago and Athens, which is probably one of the most popular cities for South Australians. They spoke about direct flights out of Brisbane and Perth—Adelaide is not on the radar.

The Premier last year spoke of his disappointment that Qantas continues to give Adelaide the short shrift. It is time he ramped it up again. In the meantime, I will be starting an online petition for Qantas to bring back international flights to Adelaide.