Sunfish: but the fact remains that ALL of Australias economy ( including Qantas) has to be world competitive and if Qantas is not profitable at going rates then it deserves to go under.
Sunny you touch on a very salient point. Yes there needs to be some competitiveness. However there needs to be some balance.
Free Trade is the Holy Grail of so many politicians and bureaucrats.
Countries like OZ and NZ have a higher standard of living than many of the countries we now take services and products from. The workers in Oz and NZ do not "enjoy" the lower costs of living of these countries, they need higher wages to survive. The business owners in OZand NZ have much higher compliance costs, just take a look at H & S compliance compared to the many of the countries we import from. The end result is we transfer jobs off shore.
It might be Free Trade BUT is it Fair Trade?
I'd like to see the response of these politicians and bureaucrats if we as taxpayers told then we had found some better and cheaper politicians and bureaucrats from off shore and they were no longer needed.