By Paul Sakkal, Nick Bonyhady and Colin Kruger
Top Coalition figures are at odds over whether Peter Dutton’s shadow cabinet is in favour of new laws to break up Qantas and Jetstar.
Nationals leader David Littleproud claimed on Monday the shadow cabinet had never approved a policy to create divestiture laws in the aviation sector, hours after an article by opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie in the Australian Financial Review floated the idea.
Bridget McKenzie called a press conference on Monday to play down her own article from that morning.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
But senior Nationals sources, who requested anonymity, contradicted Littleproud, saying a recommendation in a McKenzie-led inquiry into Qantas last year called for new policies “including potential divestiture powers to remedy any misuse of market power”.
This recommendation was signed off by shadow cabinet, the sources said, raising doubt about Littleproud’s attempt to distance the Coalition from the policy.
Some of McKenzie’s Liberal colleagues were surprised to read her opinion article in the AFR that argued a government competition review would fail if it did not look at divestiture, which could force Qantas to sell its budget arm Jetstar to bring down airfares.
Hours after the article was published, Littleproud said the Coalition had not endorsed McKenzie’s idea as policy in an implicit rebuke to his senator.
Credit: Matt Golding
By 11.45am, McKenzie was insisting the Coalition had not changed its position, and claiming she had always opposed taking Qantas apart. “In my opinion piece in the AFR, that I hope you have all read, I explicitly rule out needing to break up Jetstar and Qantas,” McKenzie said at a press conference.
That disclaimer does not appear in her original article. It argues that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will have “failed another reform opportunity unless he deals with divestiture as a measure to ensure consumers’ interests are protected, and not at the mercy of the entrenched duopoly”.
On Monday, McKenzie said she wanted the government to consider all methods to bring down airfare prices. “What I would like the treasurer to do is actually look at all the tools on how he’s going to address the excessive airfares that Australians are continuing to pay,” McKenzie said.
Qantas has been under fire for their airfares since the pandemic, when prices spiked and performance suffered, forcing its former chief executive Alan Joyce to bring forward his departure. The Coalition has previously attacked big business over supermarket prices and support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
McKenzie’s article fuelled an impression that the Liberals agreed with populist National Party demands to intervene in open markets, the sources said.
Littleproud said on Sky that the media had misinterpreted McKenzie’s article. “This is a sensible look at competition to ensure that we have cheaper airfares,” he said.
Asked repeatedly whether she still supported giving regulators the power to order airlines to divest businesses at her press conference, McKenzie refused to rule it in or out.
“By lunchtime, not even Senator McKenzie backed Senator McKenzie,” Transport Minister Catherine King said. “Another evidence-free and damaging thought bubble from people who proved once again why they can’t be trusted with managing Australia’s economy.”
A Qantas spokeswoman declined to comment but pointed to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reports that found no anticompetitive behaviour in aviation.
Former ACCC chairman Allan Fels said he favoured having divestment powers that the agency could apply to the courts to use against companies who have committed offences such as predatory behaviour. “I have no particular views on whether it would be appropriate to apply the law, in this case to Qantas, it would be up to a court of law,” Fels said.
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