‘It’s inexplicable’: AFR readers want answers on Qatar-Qantas decision
Readers of The Australian Financial Review believe the federal government has failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for blocking Qatar Airway’s application to put on more international flights to Australia – a move that favours Qantas.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce says giving Qatar extra flights may have “distorted” the market rather than lower airfares. Dion Georgopoulos
The Albanese government has spent weeks offering different reasons for the move, claiming broadly it was in the “national interest” to protect Australian jobs. But the decision has been criticised from almost all quarters, including the opposition who said the government was running a “protection racket” for Qantas.
A poll of more than 500 Financial Review readers showed 87 per cent did not believe the government had offered an adequate reason for the decision.
“The government’s approach to Qatar-Qantas is inexplicable,” one reader wrote. “Is $2.6 billion in handouts not already enough?”
Another wrote: “The Qatar decision is just another form of corruption.”
The decision to block the Qatar flights comes after the Financial Review revealed the prime minister’s son had been given access to the VIP-only Chairman’s Lounge.
“Albanese has shot his credibility with this whole affair,” one reader wrote. “Surely, allowing his son to take up access to the Chairman’s Lounge is breathtakingly stupid.”
There were also an overwhelming 79 per cent of readers who said aviation should be included in the government’s review of competition policy. Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh originally said aviation would not be in the scope of the review, but part of a separate green paper. Treasurer Jim Chalmers later clarified the decision.
“I have more consumer rights buying a
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