Costello warns Qantas consortium
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has warned the private consortium buying Qantas that the taxpayer definitely won’t help if the flying kangaroo gets into financial trouble.
Mr Costello issued the stark warning as Qantas pilots threaten to buy a stake in the airline and influence shareholders in a bid to stop the privatisation going ahead.
Mr Costello said: “They are on their own” adding, “Any suggestion that you could take over an airline, get yourself in trouble and then ask the taxpayer to bail you out is not on – no way.”
With Qantas Airways last week accepting the $11.1 billion takeover bid, subject to a national interest test by the Foreign Investment Review Board, Mr Costello said it was imperative Qantas continued to offer full domestic and competitive international services, adding, “Particularly on the domestic route, where we don’t have another full service airline , I think we would be very worried in Australia if we didn’t have a full service domestic airline.”
Prime Minister John Howard added his support to Mr Costello’s; comments, saying,
“I repeat what I said last week, and that’s all Australians devoutly hope the Qantas we have is the Qantas we keep”.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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