Gillard shot Qantas down

The claim by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and senior ministers to have been caught by surprise by the decision by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce to ground his fleet Saturday is either a confirmation of this Labor government’s total incompetence or a bare-faced lie.This government has form either way.It lies and it is incompetent.

The Qantas dispute has yet again underscored the inability of the Gillard-Labor-Green-independent minority government to govern. Gillard is no stranger to industrial action. She was a prominent supporter of the historically corrupt waterfront unions whose activities precipitated the last big show down in our history, the 1998 waterfront dispute. No-one should need reminding that she was on the wrong side of history then. Qantas competes in the international marketplace but is essentially using its profitable domestic business to prop up its money losing long-haul business. The long-haul crew pay scales are well above those earned by the crews of other international airlines, many of whom are Australians who left this country after the same unions targeting Qantas effectively killed off Ansett. For months, some Qantas unions have disrupted Qantas flights, further damaging Australia’s tourism and hospitality industries already struggling to attract foreigners hit with the high Aussie dollar and the GFC. Commonsense would have dictated that this was not the time to weaken a great Australian brand but though the Gillard government is top-heavy with former union bosses, only one minister seems to have waved the danger flag. It is weeks since the former ACTU boss and now Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson raised the prospect of government intervention to settle the dispute but his warning was ignored. We know now that the Qantas boss would not have grounded the Qantas fleet if any of the senior ministers contacted on Saturday had lifted a finger to intervene. Gillard's staff were contacted any they were aware of Qantas' impending action. Gillard abandoned the welfare of the national economy for the company of her Commonwealth counterparts. She has still not called Joyce to discuss the dispute. If some of those leaders are still struggling to find flights home today, they can blame their hostess. Qantas planes may be back in the air this afternoon but whether they stay there requires the unions to accept the reality of the international marketplace. Gillard and her former union cronies have a role to play but history shows us this is a huge ask for a government which hears only the unions and doesn’t ring back when employers call.