Senator Eric Abetz

The evidence to the Rural Affairs and Transport committee today by Qantas was very clear:

Qantas would not have grounded its fleet if the Government had used section 431 of the Fair Work Act to terminate the dispute immediately.

Qantas clearly stated that they never told the Government their position was "non-negotiable[1]" – thereby directly contradicting claims by Treasurer, Wayne Swan.

The Government didn't even bother to ask if they could have some more time to consider a position, to avoid inconvenience to the travelling public.

"The Government have some very serious questions to answer:

• Why didn't Julia Gillard or Chris Evans pick up the phone and ask for more time for the Government to reach a resolution?
• Why didn't the Government use section 431 to stop the lockout and the grounding?
• Why didn't the Government step in sooner? They had many tools in their toolkit and they didn't use them.
• Why did Mr Swan say the Qantas position was "non-negotiable"?

"Instead of spinning lines about an ‘ambush’, the Government needs to come to grips with the fact that they did not use the tools at their disposal. The whole situation has been mismanaged."

The Government could have acted earlier but sat on its hands.

There was a genuine fear that the ongoing dispute would cause unprecedented inconvenience to the travelling public into 2012.

"Instead, the Government has caused considerable damage to Qantas by using terms like 'industrial bastardry'[2], calling for Mr Joyce's sacking[3] and calling Qantas a 'rogue employer'[4] while remaining silent on Union calls for 'consumer boycotts' and threats to 'bake Qantas slowly'.

[1] House of Representatives Hansard, 31 October 2011

[2] Ed Husic MP, ABC PM Programme, 1 November 2011

[3] Senator Glenn Sterle, 28 October 2011

[4]  Senator Doug Cameron, 3 November 2011