The Coalition has been lashed for burning by means of taxpayer {dollars} for holding hearings for an inquiry in Perth after solely simply 5 witnesses attended in individual.
Labor senators Tony Sheldon and Linda White, who’re serving on an inquiry into Australia’s bilateral air service agreements, accused the opposition of losing “tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars”.
More than two thirds of the witnesses becoming a member of the inquiry in Perth had been doing so through teleconference fairly than showing in individual.
“Once again, the Australian taxpayer has had to foot the bill for a political stunt pulled by the Coalition,” the Labor senators mentioned in a joint assertion.
“If people were still looking for a reason why the Coalition cannot be trusted with public funds, they can find it here.
“All the Committee has learned so far is that the Liberal and National parties spent a decade neglecting the aviation sector,” their assertion learn.
“While this farcical hearing was taking place, new Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson issued yet another apology without apologising or even referring to the 1,700 illegally sacked ground handlers.
“It has been nine days since the High Court decision, and the workers have still not received an apology from Qantas, or from the Liberals and Nationals who fully supported Qantas’ decision to illegally sack them.”
Senators Sheldon and White each attended the inquiry in individual.
Airports topic to criminal activity
Embattled nationwide service Qantas has been accused of seeing itself as “above the law” in what’s the newest controversy to confront the airline.
Fronting the inquiry, Canberra Airport chief govt Stephen Bryon mentioned that airports had been subjected to unlawful behaviour by the airline, referencing the illegal sacking of floor staff through the pandemic.
“As an airport, it makes it very hard to deal with them and encourages … the behaviour where Qantas sees themselves as above the law,” Mr Byron informed the inquiry.
“Airports have been subjected to unlawful behaviour by Qantas. They seem to act as if they are above the law, above the contracts they sign.
“The real impact is on the customers and we’re seeing that played out now with extremely high and unfair airfares.”
Qantas accused of anti-competitive behaviour
Mr Bryon additionally argued Qantas structured its route schedule for Jetstar such that it might not be required to compete with Qantas, which was contributing to its outsized earnings.
“Competition in the domestic airline industry is mainly driven on price by the low cost carrier and we’re not seeing that competition,” he informed the inquiry.
“Qantas has 66 per cent of the market but in fact makes 80 per cent of the profits.”
Due to intense competitors within the aviation trade, Mr Bryon mentioned new airways weren’t incentivised to enter the market.
“Bonza is a brand new airline that has entered the market and it could actually‘t get access to Sydney Airport,” he said.
“In fact, [Bonza] has chosen to fly routes on which Qantas and Virgin don‘t operate. They see the level of competition so significant and the barriers to entry so high.
“90 per cent of their routes don’t have Virgin or Qantas on them.”
According to evaluation from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the remaining market share is taken up by Virgin at 33.6 per cent, and Rex at 5.3 per cent.
Slot guidelines ‘ridiculous’: Byron
Rules that enable airways to have unique entry to takeoff and touchdown ‘slots’ in the event that they don’t cancel greater than 20 per cent of their flights had been additionally focused by the Canberra Airport govt.
“The rule is ridiculous for domestic flights,” Mr Byron mentioned.
“For domestic flights it should be 95 per cent versus 5 per cent. It’s a very poor misuse of critical infrastructure.”
“My view is that Qantas have booked into the schedule more flights than they will ordinarily have and what that does is take up a huge number of slots.”
Mr Byron cited examples the place Qantas was working two separate flights on the identical route 5 minutes aside, fairly than working one bigger plane, in order that the slots had been unavailable to a competitor.
Originally revealed as Labor senators lash opposition for burning by means of taxpayer {dollars} in WA senate inquiry listening to
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
