Interview with ABC News Breakfast

LISA MILLAR: Well, the future of Australia’s third largest airline is up in the air after it sought an immediate trading halt. The Transport Workers Union says the uncertainty surrounding Rex Airlines could place 2,000 jobs at risk. The Minister for Transport Catherine King joins us now from Sydney. Minister, good morning and welcome to News Breakfast.

CATHERINE KING: Thanks for having me on, Lisa.

LISA MILLAR: Let’s talk about Rex. What can you tell us know as to what’s going on with the airline?

CATHERINE KING: So as we know, they placed themselves in a trading halt yesterday, which means that shares can’t be traded in the company pending an announcement tomorrow to the Stock Exchange, which they’ll need to do. It’s up to Rex to keep its customers informed as to what’s happening. Obviously, it’s continuing to provide services today. It’s continuing to fly and provide those important services to regional Australia and obviously employment for its workforce. We’re keeping a pretty close eye on the announcement tomorrow and stand ready. You know, we think Rex is a pretty important part of the Australian aviation industry and stand ready to work with them to see whether there’s any assistance or anything the Government needs to do.

This is- you know, regional aviation is incredibly important, and Rex is a very important part of that. Aviation is a pretty tough business, and we’re seeing that. Obviously we saw that with Bonza folding. We don’t want to see Rex fold as well, so we’re keeping a fairly close eye on it. But that’s what we know at this stage, and services are continuing.

LISA MILLAR: When you talk about the Government perhaps doing something to help, what are we talking about? Are we talking about a bailout? A cash injection?

CATHERINE KING: Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s see what the announcement is tomorrow. Certainly, we’ve seen speculation that there’s been some instability at the board. Obviously, they’re making some announcements tomorrow. We’ll keep a close eye on that. But a bit early to speculate what that will look like. We’re obviously putting some contingencies in place. We want to make sure that people are- continue to service in regional areas. But let’s wait to see what the announcement is tomorrow. But what I would say is anything that the government did, or if we were to do so, would really be looking at what is the – what is in the public interest to do. And we think very clearly it’s important to keep regional aviation and regional connectivity.

LISA MILLAR: Yeah. So I – not even having to read between the lines, you wouldn’t be prepared to let it go under. You’re worried enough about ensuring that it still exists, that you’d do something pretty substantial.

CATHERINE KING: Well, let’s see what happens tomorrow in the announcement they make to the Australian Stock Exchange. They’ve got obligations to do that. But as you know, we are absolutely aware, as a regional Australian myself, absolutely aware of how important Rex is to regional connectivity, not just here where I am today through New South Wales, but through all of the country. It’s obviously also introduced some competition into some of the bigger routes as well. I think they were – they’ve just started to fly to Perth as well, just made those announcements. So we’ll be keeping a fairly close eye on it. Important that Rex keeps its customers and its employees informed as to what’s happening as well. Those things do create significant uncertainty for staff, and no one wants to hear yesterday that they’d been placed in a trading halt. But there are, of course, a number of reasons that companies do that, and it obviously has a major announcement it’s wanting to make tomorrow.

LISA MILLAR: Yeah, I mean, look, and it hasn’t been long since we saw what happened to Bonza. So of course people are going to immediately feel pretty anxious. Vanessa Hudson, the CEO of Qantas, said that history proves that three airlines will always struggle to exist or cohabitate in Australia, that we just don’t have the population for it. Is that the case, or is it that the big airlines have these monopolies? They’ve been given more help, more power. That’s certainly the argument of the unions who are very worried about jobs going here.

CATHERINE KING: Well, aviation is hard. Like, it’s hard every everywhere. It’s got a lot of costs in it and it is really hard. You see aviation fail in other countries. You see that happen on a regular basis, so it is a really difficult business and it has got a lot of costs in it. We do have a really small market here in Australia. We punch above our weight on a whole range of things, but we are a smaller population in terms of that. So it is really difficult for aviation to, be sustainable. 

It’s why the Government,  why we’ve been investing in a lot of work on an aviation white paper to look at what does aviation look like for the next 20 years. And that’s from trying to make sure we’ve got better consumer guarantees, we’ve got better quality performance measures. We’re looking after people with disabilities at our airports and airlines, and that we’ve got continued sustainability of our Australian airlines. Now, we have currently – we obviously have Qantas and Virgin on the bigger side, Jetstar is the budget carrier, and Rex has played a really critical role in making sure we’ve got that regional connectivity, and the Government is well aware of the important role that Rex plays.

LISA MILLAR: I suspect we’ll be speaking about it again Minister, thank you. But just before you go, can I ask you? I’ve been just listening to the reflections on Barnaby Joyce’s words that he used the other day at this meeting. The word bullet when he was talking about the ballot paper and people’s power. He’s clearly regretted those words. I know that the government’s been demanding he be sacked. What have been your thoughts about it? And more broadly, the security situation for you and your colleagues?

CATHERINE KING: Well, look, frankly, I think it’s long past time Barnaby left the Parliament. Frankly, I think that his comments are just prove that he should not be in the job. The words that he used, the language that he used, the way in which he did that was frankly dangerous. And I think that it is up to Peter Dutton now to deal with him. An apology is not good enough when it comes to this. This is a really serious issue. We know there is heightened concerns. I’ve been an MP for over 23 years. For the first time, I’ve had to take – and I’ve now got more lighting on my house. I’ve had to take security measures that I haven’t had to take before when I’m out and about in the community. There is certainly a heightened environment. When you use language in the way in which Barnaby Joyce did that, you know, it can be triggering for people. There are people who may be triggered by certain words, the way in which he used that language, and that puts all of us at risk. It is dangerous what he said. And frankly, I think it is long past time that he was removed from the Parliament, frankly. I think he’s done.

LISA MILLAR: Catherine King, thank you for your time this morning.

CATHERINE KING: Good to be with you, Lisa.