Tony Sheldon is an old school Labor senator. Rough around the edges. He never wears a tie or suit. He has spent his life fighting hard for transport workers especially the low paid and overworked baggage handlers at airports.
He fought to get the CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, to appear before a Senate committee. He has been extremely critical about how Mr Joyce has handled wage negotiations with his workers. Tuesday this week was his big day. After some back and forth, Alan Joyce was going to appear before the Senate for the first time in a decade.
On the morning of the appearance, a Labor Minister, Stephen Jones, said the quiet part out loud, and claimed that Qantas’ recent profits were “a good news story”. He went on to defend the Government’s decision not to allow Qatar Airways to fly more often to Australia so that they do not “drive [prices] down to a level where it’s actually unsustainable to run an airline.”
Why does the modern Labor party seem to think it is more important for them to protect the profits of a major airline carrier, over helping provide cost of living relief to Australians paying record prices for airline tickets?
The Labor party was founded here in Central Queensland in the aftermath of the shearers’ strike at Barcaldine. Like many organisations they seem to have forgotten their original purpose and now seem more at home in the boardrooms of Sydney than the shearing sheds of the bush.
Senator Sheldon performed his task admirably. Taking Qantas and Jetstar to task for their shocking hoarding of credits on flights that were cancelled during COVID. It was revealed that they still have not refunded around $500 million of outstanding credits owed to Australian consumers.
Cancellations of flights remain at levels 4 times normal. Despite claims that this was due to staff shortages of air traffic controllers, it was not clear why smaller operators like Rex airlines are running at a normal level of cancellations. Staff shortages would impact them too.
A more likely culprit is the way airplane “slots” are allocated at Sydney Airport. These slots give airlines the right to land a plane in Sydney at designated times. Under arcane rules an airline can keep its slot for the following year if it uses it 80 per cent of the time.
Sydney Airports have made claims, backed up with data, that Qantas and Virgin have been hoarding these slots by cancelling flights so as to keep just above the 80 per cent threshold. This allows them to retain slots making it harder for new entrants, like Rex, to get a foothold in the market.
Sydney is such a busy airport that when flights are cancelled in Sydney it can have a knock-on effect to the availability of flights all around the country.
Keeping competition down and the availability of flights scarce also helps our major airlines keep prices high. Our two major airlines account for over 90 per cent of domestic flights, a market share much higher than what Coles and Woolworths has.
The Labor Government is due to respond soon to a review of the slots system (established by the former Coalition Government). It shapes as a real test for the Labor Government.
Will they side with big business again or will the Tony Sheldon’s of Labor get a win by forcing more competition on Qantas and lower prices for the rest of us?
