‘Real’ reason Australia blocked Qatar flights

The political storm over Australia’s decision to block more flights from Qatar has taken a turn – with Foreign Minister Penny Wong hinting at the real reason for the move.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has hinted that the real reason why Australia blocked more flights from Qatar is linked to the invasive strip-searches of women at Qatar airport.

Three years ago, multiple Australian women were stripsearched by authorities at a Qatari airport after a premature baby was found in a bathroom.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne described the searches at the time as a “grossly disturbing, offensive, concerning set of events”.

Female passengers said they were ordered off the plane and told to take off their underwear before they were examined and the reason for the invasive medical examination was never explained.

“She told me to pull my pants down and that I needed to examine my vagina,’’ a female passenger said.

“I said ‘I’m not doing that’ and she did not explain anything to me. She just kept saying, ‘we need to see it, we need to see it’.

The matter is now the subject of legal action.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the strip searches were “grossl disturbing”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman.

Passengers walk through the Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar on June 7, 2017. Picture: AFP.

It emerged on Tuesday that Senator Wong has spoken to the Prime Minister of Qatar on Monday and raised the 2020 strip searches.

But her office confirmed she did not mention the political storm over Australia’s decision to block more international flights.

“I initiated the call to discuss a range of bilateral matters. One of those, obviously, is in relation to the Hamad Airport incident,’’ Senator Wong said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“That’s something I spoke about in Opposition. Obviously it was a very distressing event for the women concerned. I also wanted to raise some multilateral issues.”

The not so subtle reminder of the issue came as it also emerged Transport Minister Catherine King rejected a bid by Qatar Airways to introduce an additional weekly flights on the same day she signed a letter to five Australian women who were invasively stripsearched at a Qatari airport.

The letter reassured the women the Australia was not considering “additional bilateral air rights with Qatar”

“As most Australians were, I was shocked by what happened to you at Hamad International Airport,” Ms King wrote.

“The treatment that you received was disgraceful. All travellers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

One of the women invasively strip-searched on the Qatar Airways flight speaking on 60 Minutes. Picture: 60 Minutes

Speaking this morning at a press conference to release a new aviation green paper, Ms King said the women being taken off the plane by gunpoint, was a context for her decision.

“As I’ve said repeatedly, I made this decision in the national interest, and there is no one factor that I will point to that swayed my decision one way or the other,” she said.

“Normally, these decisions are not in the public domain. They are routinely made by government. I informed the prime minister prior to the decision being made public … on July 18.

“If you remember, we had multiple media requests on behalf of the women who had been escorted at gunpoint after a Qatar airlines flight and had then been subject on the tarmac in ambulances to invasive body searches. We’d had multiple media inquiries about that. And so, by July 18, the prime minister was aware of my decision.

“For context, this is the only airline that has something like that has happened. And so, I can’t say that I wasn’t aware of it. But certainly, it wasn’t the only factor. It was a factor.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and foreign minister Penny Wong have discussed the matter. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Meanwhile, incoming Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson and her predecessor Alan Joyce could be hauled before a Senate inquiry to spill the beans on their private talks with the Albanese Government before it blocked Qatar airlines from offering more flights.

As Liberal leader Peter Dutton unleashed in question time over what he described as Transport Minister Catherine King’s “incompetent” handling of the issue, questions remain about the government’s engagement with Qantas.

“The question needs to be answered appropriately by this incompetent minister,’’ Mr Dutton told Parliament.

“She is a member of the executive and refuses to say, in response to questions, whether or not she met or spoke with [the departing Qantas CEO] Mr Alan Joyce.”

“This is a murky situation at best – the minister’s integrity is seriously in question,” he told parliament during a robust debate on the dissent motion.

“The prime minister had to come back into this chamber yesterday to correct the record when he misled this parliament.

“The minister could not be more evasive. We need to hear from this minister in a very direct way, whether or not she met with or spoke with Alan Joyce prior to making a decision to stop Qatar flying into our country, which was of commercial benefit to Mr Joyce, and to Qantas, and clearly to the detriment of the Australian public.”

But a parliamentary inquiry is now set to probe that question and plans to call Qatar Airways and the Qatari ambassador to give their account of the decision.

Trade Minister Don Farrell has also offered an olive branch to Qatar Airways suggesting it was “welcome” to lodge a new application to add international flights.

“Companies can always put in a further application for consideration and Qatar is welcome to do that,” Mr Farrell told Sky News.

It follows the intervention of multiple Right faction leaders in the ALP including former Treasurer Wayne Swan who urged the government to review the decision.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has conceded that Australians are “filthy” with Qantas but pointedly suggested Mr Albanese’s ignorance of the decision to block Qatar Airways flights was “a matter for the PM obviously”.

Qatar Airways has been blocked from adding more flights to Australia. Picture: AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC J. BROWN

The Treasurer suggested in two separate interviews on Wednesday that it was a matter for Mr Albanese to explain and that customers were “rightly” angry with Qantas.

The Prime Minister has now revealed that he did not know his government had knocked back an application from Qatar Airways for dozens of extra flights into Australia, after incorrectly telling parliament he had discussed the matter with Virgin Australia before the decision.

Transport Minister Catherine King made the Captain’s call without the Prime Minister’s knowledge – a matter the government insists is standard practice.

Speaking on the Today show, Chalmers insisted there was nothing unusual about the fact that the minister made the call on blocking Qatar Airways from launching 21 new flights to Australia per week, a move that could have boosted competition for customers.

“The decision taken in this case by the Transport Minister is exactly like decisions taken by transport ministers of different political persuasions,’’ the Treasurer said.

“It is not unusual for decisions like this. They judge the national interests. That’s what’s happened here and that’s what’s happened before under governments of other political persuasions.”

But Stefanovic then asked, “Why did it take the PM a week to declare he didn’t know about the Qatar decision by his own minister. He’d only been asked 500 times – that’s a bit weird, isn’t it?.”

“I’m obviously not going to go back through that. It’s a matter for the PM obviously.”