Senator delivers spray at transport stonewall on Qatar

Alex Mitchell and Andrew Brown | September 28, 2023

A senior transport official has copped a withering spray at a public hearing after being instructed not to answer a question about blocking extra Qatar flights.

Coalition Senator Simon Birmingham delivered the extraordinary rant at the parliamentary inquiry into what role Qantas played in the transport minister’s decision.

Senator Birmingham was probing whether or not Transport Minister Catherine King met with former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in January, just days after she’d reportedly told another airline boss the extra flights would be approved.

But Transport Department deputy secretary Marisa Purvis-Smith read the inquiry a text message from Ms King’s office instructing her not to answer the question.

“MO (minister’s office) view is it is not for the department to answer re the minister’s diary the question should be directed to the minister,” the text read.

That prompted a stinging rebuke from a frustrated Senator Birmingham, who said Ms King should front the inquiry.

“If Minister King’s office is saying ‘get stuffed’ when her own department is seeking to provide information to this committee, then Minister King should front up herself,” he told the inquiry.

“It is completely unacceptable for a situation where a minister’s office being asked by officials put in an impossible position about a pretty simple and factual matter … did a meeting happen or did it not happen, that’s the only question.”

The fiery moment was perhaps the culmination of a tense morning of questioning, with the top transport bureaucrats stonewalling attempts to release internal documents about the rejection.

Quizzed on a brief about international priorities, Transport Department official Richard Wood refused to even state if Ms King had agreed or disagreed with its contents due to a public interest immunity claim.

That’s despite coalition senators asking no questions to the specifics of the brief, prompting the Nationals’ Bridget McKenzie to accuse officials of running interference for the government.

“It is incredible, the protection racket that is being run,” she told the inquiry.

“The questions are simply going to (ask), irrespective of what the recommendation was, did the minister agree or disagree?”

But another transport official, Jim Wolfe, conceded not publishing emails from Qantas on the grounds that it would cause the airline “embarrassment, ridicule or public criticism” was wrong.

Mr Wolfe said they would clarify their rejection to a freedom-of-information request.

Earlier, Australian Qatar Business Council chair Simon Harrison said the decision to block the additional flights was frustrating.

“The minister has effectively conflated what were alleged criminal abuses by certain individuals to human rights for the nation of Qatar, then equated that with a commercial decision between two sovereign nations,” he told Nine’s Today program.

Mr Harrison said there was a “high probability” based on evidence at the inquiry that there was a sweetheart deal between Qantas and the government.

Qantas has defended asking the government to deny Qatar additional flights, citing commercial considerations as Australian airlines recover from COVID-19 downturns.

CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline welcomed competition, and entering markets led to growth and prices coming down.

The committee is due to report by October 9.