Liberal senator Simon Birmingham says the federal opposition will pursue other means to probe why Catherine King rejected the airline’s bid for more flights.
Transport Minister Catherine King is refusing to front an inquiry into her rejection of Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights in Australia, accusing the Coalition of staging a political stunt.
“While Senator McKenzie is wasting time on a political stunt, I am spending time doing the hard work the Coalition never did to set our aviation sector up for the future,” King said. “This is the height of evasiveness from a minister who should be accountable for the decisions she makes, but is instead hiding from scrutiny,” Birmingham said.“It was Catherine King’s refusal or inability to explain her decision to deny Qatar Airways additional flights which lead to a select Senate committee being established in the first place.
Qatar executives Matt Rao and Fathi Atti told the inquiry last week the airline was “surprised and shocked” by King’s rejection, which she has repeatedly said was done in the national interest, cited the strip-searching of Australian women at Doha Airport in October 2020 as one of the reasons.
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