Wed "Australian Financial Review". .. .Furore over Clark's Ansett 'lemon' jibe. .Mar 6. .Jane Boyle. .. .The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Ms Helen Clark, who played a key role in Ansett's collapse, yesterday labelled the airline a "lemon", sparking fury from the airline's staff and unions.. .. .As Ansett employees wandered home from wakes after the airline was grounded by administrators, Ms Clark said Ansett had been a headache for Air New Zealand, which placed it in administration six months ago.. .. .Her inflammatory comments came as the ACTU said it hoped that sacked Ansett staff would be paid about half the total $730 million owed in entitlements within two months.. .. .The remarks stunned the industry, given the New Zealand Government has been forced to pump NZ$885 million ($726 million) into Air New Zealand to prevent it from collapsing under a mountain of debt.. .. ."I think Ansett was an airline with quite considerable problems which Air New Zealand foolishly bought into lock, stock and barrel without any due diligence in order to keep Singapore Airlines out," Ms Clark said.. .. ."Air New Zealand then, with pass-the-parcel, ended up with the headache, and it got out and obviously the subsequent attempts to revive Ansett haven't worked either.". .. .Union leaders were outraged at the comments. ACTU secretary Mr Greg Combet retorted: "If it's a lemon, she's had to suck on it just like a few other people.". .. .The ACTU is now considering suing Tesna for ditching its $3 billion rescue plan for Ansett and has asked its lawyers to advise on legal options. . .. .Australian Services Union branch secretary Ms Julie Bignell said Ms Clark's comments were "offensive, insulting, poorly timed and dead wrong".. .. ."Ansett failed because it was poorly managed and its management for the most part was Air New Zealand," Ms Bignell said. . .. .Ms Clark's Government and the Australian Government have been key targets for blame over Ansett's demise, after delaying approval of Air New Zealand's plan to recapitalise the airline last year through a $1 billion capital injection from Singapore Airlines.. .. .After Ansett collapsed, Ms Clark was party to a $150 million payment by Air NZ to Ansett's administrators to avoid further legal action against the NZ carrier.. .. .Ms Clark was again embroiled in controversy when she caused chaos in the trading in Air NZ shares soon after Ansett was cast adrift by advising investors to hold on to the shares, forcing a trading halt.. .. .She was subsequently forced to renationalise the carrier, diluting minority shareholders (excluding Singapore Airlines and Brierley Investments) to 7.6 per cent.. .. .After writing off Ansett's entire value last year, Air NZ is still racking up losses and is expected to post a loss of about $100 million for the December half on Thursday.. .. .Air NZ now faces a siege by Qantas Airways, which is eager to buy a stake in Air NZ and has indicated that unless it is able to do so, it will ramp up its NZ operations in competition with the NZ carrier.. .. .Meanwhile, Queensland Premier Mr Peter Beattie said yesterday that while he was sad at Ansett's demise, his Government would now focus on supporting Virgin Blue's expansion.. .. ."What we have to do is to make the best of where we are and that's why we will be doing everything we can to encourage Virgin Blue to expand," he said.. .. .Ansett's administrators have begun discussions with Virgin Blue, Patrick Corporation, Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways among other potential buyers of Ansett's assets.. .. .The chief executive of Qantas, Mr Geoff Dixon, told staff in a memo yesterday that Qantas would give preference to former Ansett workers when recruiting.. .. ."We have already employed 600 Ansett workers. Another 400 are in the process of being recruited into a variety of roles," he said.. .. .However, he warned that Qantas could not afford to slacken off restructuring and cost cutting to make its cost base competitive with Virgin Blue's, which is 30-40 per cent lower.. .. .He said the airline's international operations were still under "extreme pressure" and Qantas had to fund a $7 billion fleet expansion program over the next three years. "Meeting these commitments will be a major challenge," he said.. .. .But he said Qantas's 85 per cent market share brought new responsibilities. "We must not show any signs of arrogance and I would ask that we all redouble our efforts to provide outstanding customer service to all our customers.". . . . <small>[ 05 March 2002, 16:16: Message edited by: Wirraway ]</small>