Peter Dutton used Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s absence to hone the opposition’s attacks on Ms King and question the government’s relationship with Qantas and Mr Joyce.
Ms King repeatedly said her department “undertook consultation with relevant aviation stakeholders” and she was “well aware of different stakeholder views”. But she sidestepped directly saying if she met Mr Joyce before deciding to block Qatar Airways’ bid for 28 extra flights into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth each week.
The dissent motion was the first since Labor deployed the tactic against Liberal speaker Bronwyn Bishop in 2015. The crossbench and Greens voted with the government to oppose the move, after which Ms King clarified that “to the best of my recollection”, she had not spoken to Mr Joyce about Qatar.
Senator McKenzie said she had written to Dr Chalmers before he announced the competition review – from which aviation has been pushed back until its later stages – expressing concerns about deficiencies with Ms King’s aviation review and requesting a reinstatement to the competition watchdog’s monitoring powers.
“It’s sitting on her desk now. She could pick up that recommendation [made by Mr Harris] about flexibility of slots tomorrow,” said Senator McKenzie.
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