Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce to be called before a Senate probe into the Qatar decision

The Qantas boss and his successor will be grilled about the government’s decision to block more Qatar Airways flights.

Federal Transport Minister Catherine King during question time at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and his successor Vanessa Hudson will be called to appear before a Senate inquiry to answer questions about any discussions he held with the government or Anthony Albanese about the blocking of more Qatar Airways flights into the country.

The incoming chair of the committee Bridget McKenzie said she would seek to invite both the former and current chief executives of Qantas and Qatar Airways and the Qatari ambassador.

“I’m also looking to hear evidence from the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, the Treasurer, Home Affairs, DFAT, the Productivity Commission, the ACCC and Australian travellers,” Senator McKenzie said.

The warning came as Transport Minister Catherine King refused to reveal on Wednesday whether she had spoken to Mr Joyce about her July 10 decision to block the Qatar Airways’ bid, but declared there was no sweetheart deal for “just one airline”.

Senator Bridget McKenzie speaks to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce during a senate hearing into the cost of living. Picture NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

In a turbulent parliamentary question time, which included the first dissent motion in this term against Speaker Milton Dick, Ms King was forced to parry multiple Coalition queries about any conversations she had with Mr Joyce before blocking the Qatar application for more flights into Australia. Ms King, who will release the government’s aviation green paper on Thursday morning, told parliament there had been “consultation with relevant aviation stakeholders” and she was “well aware of different stakeholders’ views when I took the decision”.

But she refused to say categorically whether she had spoken to Mr Joyce, who quit as Qantas chief executive on Tuesday, two months early, amid a furore of customer complaints and allegations over the sale of tickets for cancelled flights, before the Qatar bid was blocked.

The blocking of the Qatar request has prompted claims airfares would have been lower if the application had been granted and that the decision was a “sweetheart deal” or “protection racket” for Qantas because Mr Joyce was close to the Labor government.

Labor is seeking to amend the terms of reference for the select committee investigating the Qatar decision and will move on Thursday in the Senate that the inquiry examine all air-services agreements dating back to 2016.

If successful, this push would dilute the committee’s focus on the recent blocking of extra Qatar Airways flights and allow it to probe the 2018 decision made by then minister Michael McCormack to defer more flights from the airline.

New Qantas boss Vanessa Hudson and outgoing chief Alan Joyce. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

The day after Mr Albanese was forced to correct an answer in parliament revealing he was not informed by Ms King when she rejected the Qatar bid on July 10, the Coalition repeatedly pressed the Transport Minister over whether she had held her own discussions with Mr Joyce.

“I do meet routinely with the CEOs of all of the airlines, airports, and peak bodies, and from my recollection, the main people lobbying me about Qatar came from Virgin and a third party into my office on behalf of Qatar,” Ms King told parliament.

“The discussions I’ve had recently with Qantas have been about their concerns about our same job, same pay legislation.”

Ms King later said that “to the best of my recollection” she had not discussed the Qatar bid with the Qantas executives but had instead discussed Labor’s proposed employment laws with them.

Repeating her earlier claim that the decision had been made in the “national interest” and not as a sweetheart deal for Qantas, Ms King said she did not make decisions “in any one company’s commercial interest but in the national interest”.

Peter Dutton accused Ms King of seeking to “escape proper scrutiny over an, at best, murky situation” and said she “could not have been more evasive over whether she spoke to Alan Joyce”.

“Australians are demanding answers from this government,” the Opposition leader said.

“The Prime Minister is off overseas on another overseas flight and you have this Minister, Mr Speaker, who refuses to answer questions in his absence.”

As the political saga over the decision continued to unfold it was revealed on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Penny Wong had spoken to the Prime Minister of Qatar at the start of the week – but did not discuss the Qatar Airways bid.

However, Senator Wong did mention the October 2020 incident at Al Hamad airport in which a number of Australian women were subjected to invasive physical searches after a newborn baby was found abandoned in a bin.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Minister said that: “The Minister initiated the call to discuss a range of bilateral matters, including in relation to the Al Hamad airport incident, and multilateral issues ahead of the UN General Assembly later this month.”

“The bilateral air services agreement was not raised during the call.”

A lawsuit has been brought against Qatar Airways by five Australian women who were taken off the aircraft in Doha and subjected to the invasive searches. The women claim their human rights were breached and are seeking compensation under the Montreal Convention which covers airline liability in the case of death or injury to passengers.

On July 10, the same day Ms King took the decision to reject the Qatar application, she wrote to the women and confirmed the “government was not considering additional bilateral air rights with Qatar Airways.” However, she did not inform the Prime Minister.

With Qantas facing scrutiny over its handling of $570m in travel credits, allegations of slot hoarding at Sydney Airport and a lawsuit over thousands of cancelled flights carrying the prospect of a record penalty of more than $250m, Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned the national carrier had a trust problem with the Australian people.

But he also confirmed that, like Mr Albanese, he had not been told of the decision.

Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell also suggested he was carved out of the rejection of the Qatar Airways bid, telling Sky News: “the decision that relates to two way air traffic between governments … are in the purview of the Transport Minister.”

Senator McKenzie told The Australian on Wednesday she would seek to call a range of other stakeholders to give evidence before the Senate inquiry investigating the Qatar decision including “other aviation companies, businesses large and small, tourism operators and exporters.”

“The Senate inquiry can obviously invite the Transport Minister Catherine King to appear and assist the committee with its deliberations.”

The terms of reference for the inquiry, as they currently stand, would allow it to explore the impacts of the Qatar decision on “competition in the Australian aviation sector and the cost of living pressures on families and businesses” as well as “the Australian economy, including on travellers, the tourism and hospital sectors.”