Interview with Jane Norman, ABC Afternoon Briefing

28 August 2023

JANE NORMAN: Well, Shadow finance minister Jane Hume was chairing the Cost of living committee that we were watching just a short time ago, and she joins us live from Melbourne now. Jane Hume thanks for your time.

JANE HUME: Great to be with you.

JANE NORMAN: It was a pretty long committee, 90 minutes or so. The hearing, I should say. What was your key take out from Alan Joyce's evidence?

JANE HUME: Well, quite frankly, what became apparent during this committee hearing was that while the government speaks a big game on the cost of living, in fact, it's doing the exact opposite, particularly around competition in airlines. We know now that Qantas was heavily lobbying the government to deny Qatar Airways those additional routes, which would have increased competition in the airways and also would have brought down airline tickets for Australians. We also know that Qantas are very pleased with the Government's decision to limit the number, the amount of monitoring by the ACCC in the airline industry, something that the Coalition Opposition are very disappointed about, as would be all Australians that would appreciate cheaper airlines air tickets. And surprisingly too, we learned that the flight credits that Qantas have revealed are in fact they've underestimated the number of flight credits out there, the dollar value of those flight credits. And if those flight credits remain unclaimed, they will simply bank them to the bottom line. It was quite a fascinating hearing today. Obviously, there were questions from Senators from right across the chamber, from Coalition Senators, from Labor Senators and from Greens Senators. But I don't think that the answers that we received from Mr. Joyce or from the executives of Qantas really answered the questions that we had.

JANE NORMAN: Yeah. Well, Jane Hume Let's talk about one of those issues because as you said, a lot was raised in this, the flight credits. So we know that there are about $370 million worth of flight credits from Qantas. We do not know about the Jetstar number at this stage. What do you want to see Qantas do with these?

JANE HUME: Well, quite frankly, there's a big question as to why refunds weren't offered rather than flight credits. are obviously much harder to claim and as I said, those unclaimed credits will go straight back into Qantas bottom line. So I think we're looking for some more transparency on this issue. Mr. Joyce couldn't answer direct questions about exactly how big the difference between the actual number of flight credits are and the number of suspected flight credits out there that haven't been claimed. He couldn't give us the dollar amount. He couldn't give us what was going to be banked to the bottom line. Those questions will be put on notice and the Committee will wait to hear to see those questions on notice. His response before we decide whether to recall him to the Cost of Living Committee.

JANE NORMAN: All right, Jane Hume I'm afraid it has to be very short and sweet today because I understand you have another engagement to rush off to, but we appreciate your time and your summary in your view of that committee. Thank you.

JANE HUME: Good to be with you.