The reasons provided by Transport Minister Catherine King to justify preventing Qatar Airways flying more planes into Australia’s largest airports have included a need to decarbonise the sector, an urge to protect “well paid, secure” Australian jobs, and the necessity of helping Qantas afford newer planes.

Asked to justify her position once again on Tuesday at The Australian Financial Review’s Infrastructure Summit, the minister for higher airfares (as coined by Flight Centre’s Graham Turner) reached for what is now her seventh excuse.