An under-fire Transport Minister has conceded an incident at a Qatari airport three years in the past fed into her choice to dam Qatar’s bid to double its flights into Australia.
Catherine King signed off on her choice on July 10, the identical day she signed a letter to 5 girls who had been stripsearched by Qatari authorities in Doha in 2020 after the invention of a new child child in a bin.
The passengers say they had been ordered off the airplane, informed to take away their underwear earlier than being examined – and had been provided no rationalization for the invasive course of.
Ms King mentioned there was “no one factor” that swayed her choice someway, however mentioned the strip search was “context” in her rejection.
“I took the decision on the 10th of July, and signed a letter to the women informing them that that decision had been made on the 10th of July,” she mentioned.
“You can read into that what you want.”
She described the occasions described by the ladies as “pretty awful”.
“They are frankly not anything we would expect anyone – and certainly no Australian travelling on an international airline – to experience. That is just a fact,” she mentioned.
Qatar letter
The choice to dam Qatar’s bid to broaden their companies into Australia’s 4 main airports will probably be topic to a senate inquiry; set to be dominated by questions on whether or not former Qantas boss Alan Joyce made private representations to the Prime Minister or the federal government citing fears of market distortion.
The Coalition – who led the cost for the inquiry – say Australians are actually dealing with increased flight costs due to the shortage of competitors.
Ms King mentioned if Qatar did need to enhance its flights into Australia, there have been choices exterior of the foremost airports.
“Qatar should be flying here into Canberra airport … They could fly into Darwin, into Adelaide, into Cairns, and into the Gold Coast … they are choosing not to do so,” she mentioned.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
