TRANSCRIPT: RADIO INTERVIEW - 5AA RADIO - FRIDAY, 26 JUNE 2020

 E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
RADIO INTERVIEW
5AA RADIO  WITH LEON BYNER
FRIDAY, 26 JUNE 2020

SUBJECTS: Aviation industry; JobKeeper.

LEON BYNER, HOST: Let's talk to the Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke. Tony good morning.

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: Good to be back on your program.

BYNER: What do you think of this?

BURKE: I don't think anything summarises it as effectively as what you've just said in that intro. You can't leave it to the market at a point when there is no market. Now you know I've got some sympathy for the times when a business comes with their hand out for a bailout, and the problems that the company is facing are of their own making. But in this circumstance the reason aviation is in trouble at the moment is because governments of Australia, for good public health reasons, made a decision that means the demand for aviation during this period collapsed. Now what we need to make sure of, is when those restrictions are lifted, and they will be at some point, that we still have a competitive airline industry and a competitive edge the aviation industry. We all remember what happened when Ansett collapsed, not only what that meant for services around Australia, or what it meant for jobs, but also what it meant for prices, for the rest of us. And we want to make sure that on the other side of this, when restrictions are lifted again, that we have a competitive aviation sector in Australia, that we have two main national carriers, and that we also have a situation where people who would be in jobs if they'd been carried through this period aren't denied employment on the other side simply because the government decided it was all too hard.

BYNER: What would you have the government do?

BURKE: I think one of the simplest issues that the government needs to look at is JobKeeper. Now  the government was resistant to introducing a wage subsidy when we were first calling for it. Eventually they got there and that's a good thing. But I don't see how you can say there is a need for a JobKeeper now in aviation and there won't be a need after September. The government effectively right now is saying they're going to help people for the next 94 days and then they're going to suddenly stop and all of that support will fall off a cliff.

BYNER: Now there's another issue here, and Alan Joyce made his point yesterday. He's going to shrink their staff by 6000. So JobKeeper will be of no relevance to them, they’ll have to go to JobSeeker. If they’re lucky. Now the thing is this: we have a situation where airlines at the moment are bleeding, well Qantas is $40 million a week. We can't just let an airline sit there bleed money having shut their business down, albeit for good reasons, and then say well this is not our problem. What do we do to remedy this to make sure that they survive?

BURKE: And this is where some of the support that the government will claim and the deputy prime minister’s will claim  they have provided is support that really exists on paper only. Because a whole lot of what they did when they announced their first aviation package involved the waiving of fees and charges. Well, once flights stopped those fees and charges weren't being incurred anyway. So there's a whole lot of assistance that they've referred to that in fact doesn't flow through because of the shut downs. When they say they're not willing to provide direct support, well that's not really true because they did with Rex. They have been willing to provide direct support there. But the simplest mechanism at the moment - you think of any business and aviation is no different, the one thing that creates confidence for investment is if businesses tare given certainty. Now at the moment the government, and Scott Morrison has in his hands, the review of JobKeeper. Now I don't know whether it says that JobKeeper is going to be extended beyond September or not. None of us know, and he won't release the report until after the Eden-Monaro by-election.

BYNER: I think we need to know now. Because it's not just the 6000 jobs that Mr Joyce has to let go. It's all the other associated services Tony. And that's why I know that this is a multiple problem. Look I rang Treasurer Frydenberg’s office today and they said that around the 23rd of July they’ll be announcing what they're going to do. But you know to put people out there on JobSeeker and say well you'll have to wait a few weeks before we can tell you what we're going to do, what sort of certainty is that?

BURKE: And think of it from the perspective of business. Now I know the government's got a by-election date in July in their heads but that's irrelevant to every business. Every business runs on the financial year - the 30th of June is the date that matters to them. And part of the run that we're seeing of lay-offs,  industry by industry, is because they're not being given certainty of government decisions, based on a report that the government already has and is keeping secret. The 30th of June is the critical date here. And to think that a by-election date will allow the government to put a political timetable in front of the business and taxation timetable that every business in Australia has to run to, it's a really offensive way to operate.

BYNER: All right. Got a question. Got a question. Tony would you, would it be Labor's position, that given this very unique circumstance which COVID is, that you would advocate buying a share in the airline, or is it I wouldn't want to - because remember both sides did the deregulation bit as you well know but things have changed, things have changed. So is it your position that you would buy a share?

BURKE: We certainly put forward with respect to Virgin when Virgin went to administration that an equity injection was one of the issues that government should look at. Now you've got to do that on commercial terms so from opposition that's not a negotiation we can be part of. One of the advantages of doing anything through an equity injection, which is what we're talking about with respect to Virgin, is it's not a donation. The taxpayer then gains from any future profits as well. So that was one of the issues that was on the table. There are a lot of different ways of being able to deal with this, and the complexities of the aviation policy go more to Catherine King with her responsibilities than mine, mine’s very much about the jobs with industrial relations. But the end point of all of this is you need to have two airlines. Both the Virgin administrators and Qantas are saying the future of JobKeeper is a critical decision to them. The government has the report, they’ve just got to make a decision and stop the secrecy around it.

BYNER: All right. Tony Burke, thank you.

ENDS