Ansett Bailout Tax grab broadens.

[Eastwest Loco]

Despite the fact that nobody seems to have seen where the dollars from the Ansett Bailout tax have gone, the Government have just adjusted it as follows.

QF multi sector domestic travel will now be taxed at $5.00 per sector, as opposed to $10.00 per ticket - therefore a journey HBA MEL BNE CNS and return will attract $30.00 in AB tax rather than the $10.00 charged last week.

DJ has always been $5.00 per sector.

Now I guess this means that there will be even more money to not throw to those that need it. The ashtrays in the administrators cars must be getting full. Must be time for them to get new ones I suppose.

Best all

EWL

[AN LAME]

Can somebody tell me why the media hasn't picked up the fact that the government is receiving the ticket tax IN ADDITION to recouping all the monies they lent the Administrators BEFORE the employees get another cent :mad: So far they've made a profit of approximately $200M :(

[Torres]

Can someone tell me how much the Government has collected (I heard much higher estimates) and how much brass the Government has paid to either the ex AN employees or Administrators, which is unrecoverable?

[AN LAME]

They LOANED aprrox $360M (I think) and they will be repaid every cent by the administrators before we see a cent. All on top of the ticket tax which they're keeping!

[Torres]

That's what I thought. But I heard the ticket tax cash tin was running in excess of half a billion.

[AN LAME]

If that's the case - where's geoffrey thomas when you need him :*

[Eastwest Loco]

The accurate figures must be available under FOI one would think.

Surely it is not classified albeit potentially embarrassing information.

EWL

[AN LAME]

I think it's readily available. What I cannot accept is the injustice of not ensuring the AN staff simply receive what was their due from this windfall, and why the media haven't run with it. I suppose there are plenty of other stories around to fill the space between the advertisements!

[Wirraway]

Fri "The Australian"

Qantas cuts Ansett tax
March 07, 2003

QANTAS will impose a $5 levy on all flight sectors in changes to the Ansett tax.

The change, introduced on Monday, allows Qantas to charge $5 a sector of travel, instead of $10 a ticket issued. It means a one-way, single-sector flight will now cost $5 more rather than $10.

The change was endorsed by the Howard Government to bring Qantas's charging system in line with Virgin Blue, which charges $5 a sector because it sells only one-way fares.

A Qantas spokesman said the vast majority of customers would benefit from the change.

A spokesman for Transport Minister John Anderson said the change would also benefit multi-sector tickets, with a three-sector flight incurring a $15 fee instead of the original $30.

Opposition transport spokesman Martin Ferguson said Labor hoped the change would not mean the Government was "settling in on the levy for the long haul".

"The Government must guarantee this won't lead to a bigger tax take," he said. "Labor's position remains that they should drop the levy now."

Mr Ferguson said the Government had collected $182.3 million from the levy as of December 31, and $290 million in asset sales.

The tax was introduced to recoup a $330 million government loan to cover any shortfall in the estimated $400 million in entitlements owed to Ansett's 16,000 employees.

But the Government was tricking the public into believing the money was going towards Ansett workers, said Australian Services Union assistant national secretary Linda White. "The ... Ansett people are not getting any of it," she said.

[eyeball]

This information should be forwarded to the opposistion leader as he is scratching for shots to fire at Howard. Then it might find its way into the media.

[Creampuff]

Answer 4(f) to Question on Notice 1097 provided by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations on 4 March 2003 (page 9090 of Hansard at: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/dailys/ds040303.pdf )Funding for the Special Employee Entitlements Scheme for Ansett employees (SEESA) is not appropriated for any one financial year, however, $500m was appropriated for the life of the programme under the Air Passenger Ticket Levy (Collection) Act 2001.

[Eastwest Loco]

Since its initial load in the new format, the tax has shifted slightly.

It seems to be a little backpedal, however here is the latest.

One "trip" ie: DPO MEL SYD - $5.00

One return - TSV SYD MEL BNE TSV - $10.00

Multi sector itineraries ie: MEL ASP (RON) BME (RON) DRW (RON) CNS (RON) MEL would be charged at $5.00 per days flying. The example is $25.00 worth.

The info provided to Sabre and Galileo from QF was as it often is - ambiguous and was misinterpreted initially, allowing a full day of windfall ripoff to the Government.

This quite often happens when the Fijiian indian's transcript is not understood by the Vietnamese fare anylist who passes it on to the Japanese lady who transcribes the fare rule for the Lebanese secratary to send to the GDS.:O

Speaking of the Lebanon - which we weren't, did you hear a massive earthquake and mudslide today killed 350,000 Lebanese?

The United States has despatched 5 MASH units from Saudi Arabia, Canada has despatched a dozen Red Cross crews, the Brits are sending teams of engineers to rebuild vital infrastructure and Australia is sending 350,000 replacement Lebanese. :ok: :ok: :uhoh: