Qantas claims it ‘likely wouldn’t be here’ if it had paid subsidiaries’ staff same as direct employees

Qantas has been under scrunity at Senate inquiry hearings into Labor’s closing loop Photograph: Daniel Munoz/Reuters

Qantas has warned it could have gone bust if hadn’t been able to offer new staff of its subsidiaries lower pay than the “legacy” conditions of the main airline.

Nathan Safe, the acting executive manager of industrial relations at Qantas, gave that evidence to a Senate inquiry on Tuesday, defending the airline’s “complex” structure as one that had “evolved legally”.