Government ‘cannot allow’ Rex Airlines to fail: Bridget McKenzie

National Senator Bridget McKenzie Bridget you would have just seen some of that polling this morning it is kind of mixed news but do you take much heart in that do you think the the nuclear proposal can get you over the line at the next election well great to be with you Laura I've been a strong proponent of adding nuclear power generation uh to our Energy Mix for a long time so I'm very stoked with the coalition's policy we'll be taking to the next election I think history will show that the prime minister is absolutely stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to his approach to Net Zero nuclear power generation uh we've got the Paris Olympics on our athletes are in a city that's powered by Net Zero nuclear and if we're serious about climate change we have to be serious about this technology that developed countries like ours have adopted across the world so unfortunately I think this the poll shows that the pm has lost control of the energy debate and Australians want to do three things they want to reach their climate goals they want to make sure we keep jobs here on Shore and they want to uh make sure that we have reliable energy generation not just to 2050 but beyond and that's what adding nuclear to the mix will do they want it cheaper too and nuclear doesn't quite do that well Laura our International um experience would suggest otherwise uh we don't know how much Renewables only uh roll out will actually cost over time we know that before we even get to 2050 we're going to have to be replacing uh wind towers and solar panels in some cases twice before we get there and we don't know how that cleanup is going to be paid for either so there's a lot of missing costings in the government's plan we think Renewables are a key plank of getting to Net Zero by 2050 but they just cannot deliver the reliability and we're seeing that play out right now in the fragility of our electricity grid uh as we speak so uh we're serious about having a credible path and I think Australians know that um and I was on a a zoom meeting last night with uh some nuclear physicists female only um Zoom meeting and it was just fantastic to hear their um proposal and being just so passionate about how nuclear can actually help not just with our economic future but socially as well with air quality Etc all right let's talk about Rex because it does look like it is on the verge of collapse is that what we're looking at right now well we don't know Laura um there's obviously concerns they've called in deits um so they'll be making announcements over the next 24 oh sorry ey um over the next 24 hours um we just cannot allow Rex to fail and I think we've seen as the tww has been saying the playing out of the government's in action on Aviation regulation here Rex has been saying for a very very long time uh what an anti-competitive aviation sector we have and how hard it is to compete against particularly quis uh and we're seeing that played out they can't get those slots into Sydney and the government put out a press released 6 months ago and has done nothing to actually fix the problem so you know Anthony Al Instinct um given the side of politics you're on is to to leave this to the market but that has never been the the case in the aviation sector uh in Australia there does need to be intervention so when you're talking about intervention here you're talking about taxpayer funds to prop up recks is that what you see want to see this government do well Laura last year I chaed an inquiry into the aviation sector while the government chose to run a protection racket for Alan Joyce uh CEO and quantis more generally and they did that by ignoring the key recommendations out of that Senate inquiry so we handed the government on a platter a raft of recommendations to assist Airlines like Rex like bonsa like virgin and new entrance uh to actually get up and going and make our domestic Aviation sector more competitive to keep prices down uh the government didn't take those recommendations up right they issued a press release six months ago on the slots into Sydney but have taken no action on it so meanwhile Rex would that have affected rex materially or is I mean losing a million dollars a day a week apparently yeah Laura I can tell you absolutely those recommendations would have because Rex has been telling the government for 2 years that they need to fix the slot access into Sydney because you cannot run a successful St sustainable Aviation um in you know company in this country without access to our larger airport at times that customers want and the government did nothing now when you look at the cancellation And Delay data Rex tops the pops much better than quis in some cases their ticket prices are half the price but if you can't get into Sydney at a time that customers need then you're trying to fight this with one hand tied behind your back so the government should have acted 6 months ago they're sitting on their hands saying now uh you know we hope it all works out well get off your back sides and actually do something okay so they do now I get that they should have done something six months ago on the slot issue but if if Rex is on on its knees as it is now this is going to have a a massive impact on Regional towns so do they need a bailout govern to have a plan to make sure should that at least be an option well Laura the Laura the government needs to make sure they have a plan I'm not confident given what we read in the guardian today uh that the government does have a plan for Rex uh they knew 10 days before bonds are collapsed and did nothing they sat on their hands and you know why because it suits quantis for that to happen and every single time that there's an opportunity to stand up against uh quis in the aviation sector this government picks the bully boy rather than the new competitors and the Australian traveling public uh and that's they've got to turn that around they've got to have a careful here don't we because quantis doeses service a lot of these Regional as well and that competitive um nature with Rex is is important Laura I can tell you that uh Rex as the sole operator in on um routs such as Melbourne straight into marimbula or Adelaide to Broken Hill that quison virgin didn't want to service they've been doing that as Soul operator for a long time as soon as Rex said they were going to compete uh with quantis on the very very lucrative Melbourne Sydney route yeah all of a sudden quis is flying those roots and losing money on them just to put Rex under Financial pressure this is the behavior of this Airline and this is what happens when you've got a very um monopolized you know power base which quantis does in our Aviation sector and the government's done nothing to do it you know with they were given the recommendations and didn't act so I don't want to see kathern King and Anthony albanesi ringing their hands saying gee I hope it all works out they're responsible for this they've got Believers at hand and we need action not you know our platitudes all right we'll hear from him uh in the not too dist future he'll be holding a media conference in Sydney so there'll be a few questions there Bridget thanks so much for your time as always thanks Laura