Qantas, IR to dominate first Spring sitting week

The opposition will ramp up pressure on the government over its decision to reject Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights into Australia.

The opposition will use parliament to ramp up pressure on the Albanese government for rejecting Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights into Australia, with the Coalition arguing there is a “level of murkiness” to the decision.

Peter Dutton has vowed to make the controversial decision – which has been criticised for favouring national carrier Qantas – a focus of question time, after Labor refused to reveal why it was in the “national interest” to reject the Qatar bid while airfares were soaring to record highs.

Anthony Albanese, who will depart Canberra for the ASEAN summit in Jakarta on Wednesday, has denied he had any role in the Qatar decision, saying it was the responsibility of Transport Minister Catherine King.

“The government has given seven different reasons in seven different days,” Mr Dutton told Sky News. “Ministers don’t have their story right. We don’t know Catherine King’s involvement. We don’t know the Prime Minister’s discussions with other ministers, with the chief executive of Qantas, etc, and none of that has been divulged, and it should be because there is a tangible impact on Australians.”

Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie has filed an order for the production of documents relating to the decision, and said she had also written to Jim Chalmers calling on him to direct the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to ramp up its monitoring and ­reporting functions.

“I wrote to the Treasurer a week ago asking that he reinstate the ACCC to actually monitor competition in the airline industry, and I’m yet to receive a response,” Senator McKenzie said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie.

The sitting week is expected to be dominated by debate on ­Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke’s shake-up of workplace laws relating to casual and gig workers, and wage theft.

Meanwhile, Labor’s signature $10bn housing policy will remain in limbo after progress stalled when the Greens blocked the bill in the Senate, with the upper house’s attention due to be occupied by proposed laws to strengthen biosecurity measures, a bill designed to increase flexibility for the Australian government to grant immunity to international organisations and an amendment to anti-money laundering laws.

The Indigenous voice will also continue to occupy the spotlight with parliament returning for the first time since the October 14 referendum date of was announced.

Mr Dutton on Sunday said the Coalition, if returned to government, would hold a second referendum to enshrine Indigenous recognition in the Constitution, but maintained a constitutionally enshrined voice was “divisive”.

The government will also ­introduce legislation during this sitting of the House of Representatives to enact its Murray-­Darling Basin plan, which the Nationals have threatened to torpedo over concerns about Labor’s plan to return 450 gigalitres of environmental water to the basin.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek sought to extend the Murray-Darling Basin Plan past its 2024 deadline in a bid to deliver on the election commitment to return water to the basin.