Federal Transport Minister Catherine King rejected a bid by Qatar Airways to introduce an additional 21 weekly flights into major capital cities on the same day she signed a letter to five Australian women who were invasively strip-searched at a Qatari airport.
Key points:
- Catherine King is facing sustained pressure over her decision to block extra Qatar flights to Australia
- She told the searched women the government was not considering “additional bilateral air rights with Qatar”
- That letter was dated days before the prime minister was notified the decision had been made
The women were among 13 passengers on a Qatar Airways flight to Sydney departing from Hamad International Airport in Doha in October 2020.
The passengers were invasively strip-searched by authorities after all women were told to get off the QR908 flight when a premature baby was found in a terminal bathroom.
In a letter dated July 10 this year, Ms King informed the five women the Australian government was not considering “additional bilateral air rights with Qatar”.
“As most Australians were, I was shocked by what happened to you at Hamad International Airport,” she wrote.
“The treatment that you received was disgraceful. All travellers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Government sources insist the letter to the women was sent after Ms King made her decision on Qatar’s extra flights.
But it happened days before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese knew her decision had been made.
Mr Albanese late on Tuesday told the parliament he did not know a decision on Qatar Airways was made when he spoke to Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka on July 13.
“I did not know that the transport minister had made a decision on 10 July 2023, a detail that was only advised to me after question time today,” he said in parliament.
Earlier on Tuesday, he had said that he spoke with Ms Hrdlicka before the government had finalised its decision.
With Mr Albanese now in Indonesia for talks with world leaders, the Coalition continued its questioning of Labor in his absence on Wednesday.
Ms King faced further pressure to explain what went into her decision to block Qatar Airways from introducing additional flights.
The minister said her department undertook consultation with relevant stakeholders in the aviation industry, and said she was aware of various views when she took the decision.
“I know there are some businesses and airlines that would have liked me to make a different decision, but I have not based that decision on any one company’s commercial interest, but on the national interest,” Ms King said.
The opposition has repeatedly criticised the government over the decision, accusing it of stifling competition and running a protection racket for Qantas.
Labor has continually insisted the decision was made in the national interest.
Ms King pointed to a similar application put on hold for four years by former transport minister Michael McCormack, before only granting the airline an extra seven flights a week.
The prime minister also insisted he did not have a conversation with former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce before the application was rejected.
A motion to establish a parliamentary inquiry examining the impacts of the decision, including on the cost of flights, passed the Senate on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong today confirmed spoke she Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani on Monday over the phone, but said “the Bilateral Air Services Agreement was not raised”.
A spokesperson for the foreign minister said the pair did discuss the 2020 incident at Al Hamad airport.
The five passengers, who Ms King wrote to via their lawyer, are in an ongoing legal battle over the matter.
The invasive searches they underwent are believed to have been carried out to determine who had given birth, but the women were not informed why they were being examined.