The transport minister, Catherine King, has offered eight different reasons for coming to her decision to reject Qatar’s request, as she defends against speculation about the influence of Qantas in the process.
Qatar Airways had been pushing for the extra capacity for some time, and former Qantas chief Alan Joyce said he cautioned the government against granting the request in October 2022.
Here’s a timeline of what she and other members of the government have said as the story has gone on.
10 July
King responds to a June letter from the women behind a class action against Qatar Airways who had pleaded with her not to grant the airline extra rights. King tells the women “your experience remains in my thoughts” and that the government “is not considering additional bilateral air rights with Qatar”.
13 July
Anthony Albanese speaks with Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka about Qatar Airways’ request, not knowing King has made her decision.
13 July – 18 July
King informs Albanese, as well as other ministers, about her decision, according to her later statement.
18 July
The decision is made public, with King confirming the rejection in media reports.
26 July
King says she “wouldn’t link the decision” with the Doha airport incident. She suggests reducing emissions was a driving factor. “I want more capacity for people to be able to enjoy travel, but equally I want to be able to decarbonise the transport sector,” she says.
3 August
King, having provided little insight into the decision, makes her first attempt at providing a reason for the refusal, telling Guardian Australia that allowing the Qatari request would go against Australia’s “national interest”. She provides no further detail.
9 August
During question time, King says that under the national interest consideration, there was a concern Qatar’s extra capacity could hurt the aviation sector’s post-Covid recovery, and that the government had also acted to protect “long-term well-paid secure jobs for Australians in the aviation sector”.
15 August
King suggests the issue was related to the Qatari government, saying “we determined that in the case of Qatar Airways, owned by the Qatari government, this was not in our national interest”.
At the same press conference, King suggests Qantas’ investment in aircraft was a reason. “Obviously Qantas is increasing its capacity as well as buying new planes which are important to our system as well,” she says.
28 August
The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, links the decision to a strategy that “doesn’t destroy the (aviation) industry over the medium and long term”, in comments to the Financial Review.
He later says his comments had been “misconstrued” to suggest the government was acting to protect Qantas. He says it was “completely uncontroversial” for a government to want a profitable local airline industry.
Pressure grows on the government to explain its decision, and the influence of Qantas in the decision, after the Australian carrier unveiled a record $2.47bn profit days before a damning consumer watchdog investigation and legal action saw Joyce step down early.
4 September
Albanese tells question time he “received no lobbying from Qantas on this issue”.
5 September
Albanese tells question time he had spoken with Virgin Australia’s chief executive, Jayne Hrdlicka, on 13 July about Qatar Airways’s request, but that “during that discussion I did not know that the transport minister had made a decision on 10 July”. Albanese says he did not speak to Joyce about the Qatari request.
6 September
King tells question time: “I do meet routinely with the CEOs of all of the airlines, airports and peak bodies, and from my recollection, the main people lobbying me about Qatar came from Virgin, and a third party [engaged] my office on behalf of Qatar.”
7 September
At a press conference at Canberra airport to present the aviation green paper, King says the Doha incident was “a factor” in her decision to reject Qatar’s request, but then walks this back immediately, saying it instead provided “context” for her decision.
“Certainly, for context, this is the only airline that has something like that that has happened. And so I can’t say that, you know, I wasn’t aware of it but certainly it wasn’t the only factor,” King says.
