Qantas faces inquiry over use of airport slots
Qantas officers will probably be grilled on allegations the service has been misusing slots at Australia’s busiest airport, AAP stories.
A Senate inquiry is analyzing proposed legal guidelines on flights at Sydney Airport, which end in penalties for airways which intentionally cancel companies to keep up precious slots at terminals.
Chief government of Qantas’s home operations Markus Svensson will seem earlier than the inquiry on Tuesday, together with officers from regional airline FlyPelican.
Slots at Sydney Airport are restricted to 80 take-offs and landings per hour. However the Australian Airports Affiliation, which can be showing on the inquiry at the moment, mentioned massive cancellation numbers represented a priority. The affiliation mentioned in its submission to the inquiry:
These increased cancellation charges recommend that … pointless flights are scheduled and cancelled for strategic slot-retention functions. [This] has grow to be a barrier to competitors, permitting a duopoly that stifles the entry of latest carriers and in the end limits shopper alternative.
Below the proposed legal guidelines, the federal transport division would have powers to drive airways to offer data on alleged misuse.
Qantas Group and Virgin have constantly denied they misuse slots. In its submission, Qantas mentioned there was a typical curiosity to make sure capability at Sydney Airport was used successfully:
We stay up for working with the federal government to grasp how the invoice, laws, slot administration scheme and any related steerage materials will work in apply.
Key occasions
Rex will get multi-million lifeline for regional flights
Embattled regional airline Rex has been thrown an operations lifeline, AAP stories, after it went into voluntary administration in July and its administration was handed to directors EY Australia.
The transport minister Catherine King and office minister Murray Watt have at the moment introduced the federal government would supply as much as $80m and grant early entry to entitlements for Rex’s former workers.
Rex’s directors plan to use to the federal court docket to increase the voluntary administration to 30 June, 2025. If the appliance is granted the federal government will proceed to ensure ticket gross sales made all through the administration interval to that date.
The ministers mentioned the assure has been efficient up to now, “and has yet to be used with flight bookings holding up well.”
Greater than 600 staff have been made redundant because it was revealed Rex was struggling beneath the load of $500m of debt. In August, the federal authorities stepped in to ensure bookings on regional flights, however resisted requires a bailout.
The administration course of for Rex was progressing, the federal government mentioned because it famous the current sale of its Pel Air Aviation enterprise to Helicorp Pty Ltd, which is a part of Toll Aviation. The sale proceeds will probably be used to repay secured collectors.
Victorian Greens pushes to enshrine abortion companies in state’s structure
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian Greens will use the second final week of parliament for the yr to push to enshrine abortion companies into the state’s structure.
Whereas each main events don’t have any plans to vary abortion legal guidelines within the state, the Greens say the problem is turning into more and more politicised and entry a lot be protected guarded.
The occasion’s well being spokesperson, Dr Sarah Mansfield, says entry was already a postcode lottery in Victoria and the state “can’t afford to be sent backwards”.
World wide, and right here in Australia, we’re seeing many in energy more and more emboldened to assault reproductive rights for political functions. Reproductive rights have been hard-won, but it surely’s clear the struggle isn’t over. Governments shouldn’t have the ability to prohibit entry to elementary well being care primarily based on political agendas.
The change requires a supermajority of 60% of votes within the parliament to move.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has vowed to guard abortion rights within the state regardless of “frightening” debate in South Australia and Queensland.
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind right here, signing on for running a blog duties. Due to Martin for kicking issues off for us. I’ll be taking you thru our rolling protection for many of at the moment.
As all the time, you may attain out with any suggestions, suggestions or questions through X, @emilywindwrites, or sending me an electronic mail: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s go.
Australian creator shortlisted for Booker Prize
Charlotte Wooden, who has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, “is a writer of the most intense attention”, in accordance with the British screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s evaluate of her shortlisted e-book, Stone Yard Devotional.
The e-book’s protagonist is a girl retreating from the world to a convent in New South Wales and is the story, Cottrell-Boyce writes, “of a small group of people in a tiny town, but its resonance is global. This is a powerful, generous book”.
She is an 11-2 outsider to win the £50,000 ($100,000) prize, with the American Percival Everett and Briton Samantha Harvey the bookies’ favourites. You may learn our full story right here:
After which there’s Cottrell-Boyce’s evaluate:
Sarah Basford Canales
Jim Chalmers additionally pointed to the significance of financial ties when constructing stronger diplomatic relations with Pacific companions. The treasurer mentioned current work in his portfolio had led to restoring Australia because the Pacific nations’ accomplice of alternative.
Chalmers confirmed he was within the closing phases of negotiations with ANZ to make sure it continued its presence within the Pacific
The foremost Australian financial institution’s 9 current operations, which embody companies in Vanuatu and Fiji, will proceed working, he mentioned.
The deal we’re engaged on is one other huge a part of our efforts to maintain communities and economies related, and finance flowing in our neighbourhood.
Chalmers: ‘No person wins from a commerce warfare, however we have now extra at stake than most’
Sarah Basford Canales
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has warned that decoupling from main buying and selling companions, corresponding to China, presents an ideal threat to Australia’s financial system, however “derisking” key provide chains may go away the nation in a greater place than many of the world.
In a speech delivered at an Australian Institute of Worldwide Affairs discussion board in Canberra final night time, Chalmers mentioned derisking commerce relations was generally crucial within the face of unreliable provide chains and different types of financial or geopolitical stress. Chalmers mentioned:
Most international locations are doing this in a technique or one other and we are not any exception … Due to our mixture of commercial, geographical, geological, meteorological, and geopolitical benefits, we stand to be among the many greatest beneficiaries of de-risking.
Chalmers conceded Australia was “more exposed than others” within the “global fragmentation” of commerce, noting current IMF’s findings that commerce ties have deepened between geopolitically aligned international locations, whereas declining between those that aren’t.
However he mentioned Australia’s power, expertise and significant minerals could be key in constructing regional and world provide chains. Creating new industries in inexperienced metals and inexperienced hydrogen would additionally contribute to world demand.
No person wins from a commerce warfare, however we have now extra at stake than most.
Within the wake of Donald Trump’s win within the US election, the world’s economies are watching intently. Throughout his marketing campaign, the US president-elect mentioned he would place baseline tariffs of 10% on all imported items, with as much as 60% and 100% for China and Mexico respectively. The ripples of such a coverage shift on tariffs may result in decrease development and better inflation in quite a few international locations who commerce with the US.
The treasurer warned Australia wouldn’t be immune from the flow-on results of escalating commerce tensions however insisted the Albanese authorities was “well-placed and well-prepared”.
Qantas faces inquiry over use of airport slots
Qantas officers will probably be grilled on allegations the service has been misusing slots at Australia’s busiest airport, AAP stories.
A Senate inquiry is analyzing proposed legal guidelines on flights at Sydney Airport, which end in penalties for airways which intentionally cancel companies to keep up precious slots at terminals.
Chief government of Qantas’s home operations Markus Svensson will seem earlier than the inquiry on Tuesday, together with officers from regional airline FlyPelican.
Slots at Sydney Airport are restricted to 80 take-offs and landings per hour. However the Australian Airports Affiliation, which can be showing on the inquiry at the moment, mentioned massive cancellation numbers represented a priority. The affiliation mentioned in its submission to the inquiry:
These increased cancellation charges recommend that … pointless flights are scheduled and cancelled for strategic slot-retention functions. [This] has grow to be a barrier to competitors, permitting a duopoly that stifles the entry of latest carriers and in the end limits shopper alternative.
Below the proposed legal guidelines, the federal transport division would have powers to drive airways to offer data on alleged misuse.
Qantas Group and Virgin have constantly denied they misuse slots. In its submission, Qantas mentioned there was a typical curiosity to make sure capability at Sydney Airport was used successfully:
We stay up for working with the federal government to grasp how the invoice, laws, slot administration scheme and any related steerage materials will work in apply.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our reside information weblog. I’m Martin Farrer with the highest in a single day tales earlier than I hand the information baton to Emily Wind.
Amid the swirl of concern about Donald Trump urgent reset on world financial norms, Jim Chalmers has warned that de-coupling from main buying and selling companions presents an ideal threat to Australia’s financial system. “Nobody wins from a trade war, but we have more at stake than most,” the treasurer mentioned in a speech final night time. Full particulars developing.
Three in 5 Australian renters count on to by no means personal their very own house, analysis from the Australian Housing and City Analysis Institute has discovered, describing it as a major shift that requires rethinking of tax and housing techniques. In the meantime the principal of a department of one among Australia’s largest actual property corporations has admitted utilizing Chat GPT to generate property listings after a rental house was marketed as being shut to 2 “excellent” colleges that didn’t exist.
Charlotte Wooden, the Australian creator of Stone Yard Devotional, has been shortlisted for the Booker prize however is an out of doors guess towards favourites Percival Everett and Samantha Harvey. Full particulars developing.
And Qantas is up earlier than a Senate inquiry at the moment, forward of proposed legal guidelines that look to verify valuable flight slots at Australia’s busiest airport aren’t being misused to suppress competitors. Extra on that too, quickly.
