Well the labor and the greens have lost jobs on their hands.
Paul Howes said he would quit if one job was lost to the carbon tax. Pink slip Paul? lol
QANTAS has urged parliament to support the Coalition’s efforts to support the national airline, revealing its carbon tax liability was on track to reach $118 million this year.
In a statement issued this afternoon, the airline complained the carbon tax was “among the most significant challenges we face” and that was unable to pass the cost on to consumers because of the “intensely competitive market”.
The statement is an about-face from the carrier’s earlier claims, and undermines repeated claims by the Labor Party that the carbon tax is “not a significant issue” for the airline’s sustainability.
“After discussions with Qantas, the government announced that it had deliberated carefully on various options, and that its preferred course of action is to ask the parliament to repeal key provisions of the Qantas Sale Act,” the national carrier said.
“The Act is outdated and puts Qantas at a unique disadvantage over its competition. Both sides of politics have fully accepted that the Australian aviation playing field is distorted.
“If the legislation does not pass, then the domestic distortion would remain.”
Prime Minister Tony Abbott this morning defended his refusal to give Qantas an unsecured $3 billion loan, insisting the airline would use “initiative and creativity” to survive for as long as it takes to navigate the government’s legislation through the fractious Senate.
“Even under the restrictions of the Qantas Sale Act, there’s still enormous freedom of management that Qantas has … and I suspect they will … use their initiative and creativity, to come up with a whole range of strategies that will make the airline more competitive,” the Prime Minister told 2GB.
The airline’s statement said: “Qantas will now focus on what we can control, and that’s operating a great Australian business. We will continue to work through the processes announced last week to take $2 billion in costs out of our business.
Qantas said it paid a $106 million carbon tax bill last financial year, and $59 million in the six months to January.
“We have said that the price on carbon is a cost to our business that we have not been able to recover through fare increases, because of the intensely competitive market we operate in. Domestically, it cost us $106 million in FY13 and $59 million in HY14,” the airline said.
“It is among the significant challenges we face, including an uneven playing field, capacity increases in the international market and record high fuel prices.”
Qantas’s statement came after Mr Abbott said Qantas should tell non-government senators it wanted the same deal as its major competitor, Virgin.
“And that way we can all live happily ever after and Australia can have two fantastic, highly competitive airlines,’’ Mr Abbott said.
Opponents of changes to the Qantas Sale Act say it will lead to jobs going overseas.
Two investment banks, the federal Treasury, the infrastructure department and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers advised the government that Qantas was basically in good shape.
“We sent in various experts to look at Qantas and the conclusion that we came to, based on their advice, was that Qantas does not need an unsecured facility from the government,” Mr Abbott said.
Labor is demanding the government release its due diligence on Qantas.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann rejected suggestions the legislative changes to the act were doomed.
“We’ll make the case to the Senate and the Australian people and let’s see what happens,’’ he said.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce will meet the airline’s unions today.
