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The government has rubbished suggestions by opposition transport spokesperson Bridget McKenzie that it should have the power to force Qantas to sell off Jetstar.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Transport Minister Catherine King dismissed Senator McKenzie’s (pictured) divestiture idea, floated in The Australian Financial Review on Monday morning, as a “thought bubble”.
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“The Coalition either has not read or not understood the Aviation White Paper, which has the most significant reforms to aviation in more than a decade,” the spokesperson said.
“The policy put forward by Senator McKenzie is an evidence-free thought bubble which even her Coalition colleagues don’t support.
“Only the Labor Party can be trusted to look after aviation and the wellbeing of airline passengers in this country.”
Nationals leader David Littleproud also appeared to throw cold water on the suggestion, telling Sky News on Monday that divestiture was not yet Coalition policy because “we haven’t got the evidence”.
“The evidence was clear in the supermarkets. We haven’t had the reviews that have identified where the competition bottlenecks are with aviation, but this is the first step – that we should be open minded to work through that process in a transparent way and understand the options and be guided, in many cases, by what the ACCC believe are the tools they need,” he said.
“That’s been done with supermarkets, that hasn’t been done with aviation, and so we haven’t formulated a policy, because why would you formulate a final policy until you’ve got the evidence and you’ve heard from the experts? That’s good governance, and that’s what we’re sticking to.”
Industry has also come out against the idea, with the chair of peak body Airlines for Australia and New Zealand, Professor Graeme Samuel, calling it “crazy”.
“What is coming out of the Nationals at the moment is quite extraordinary and none of it makes any sense. It’s populist politics at its lowest level, and I would’ve thought that even the Nationals were better than that, but it appears not,” he told The Australian.
“[Senator McKenzie has] been running this issue of anti-Qantas since the Joyce days and none of what she’s had to say makes any common sense in terms of competition or lower fares.
“Unfortunately, because it is a simple glib message, it gets through to some out in the electorate and that’s a pity – I would’ve hoped we could expect better from our politicians.”
Qantas says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has not made any findings of anti-competitive behaviour in the four years it has been actively monitoring the airline industry, and that real and nominal fares are trending down, with Qantas and Jetstar international fares adjusted for inflation both lower than last financial year.
