Yes but normal governments would actually use their Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in dealing with other governments, from some of the reading of the report it looks like DFAT was completely out of the loop in any decision making or even consultation.
What you are saying is that governments are unaccountable to anybody. Not sure that's going to fly. Australian governments are accountable to the parliment, courts and the voters at the very least surely?
If the Qatari Government and/or the Airline was such a national security security concern, then why are they flying here at all, and why did various ministers say that QR were welcome to fly to other cities such as Gold Coast/Cairns/Darwin etc but not to Sydney/Melbourne or Brisbane? Or do security concerns only relate to some Australian cities and not others?
If the Federal Government want to have a human rights as a condition to entry to the Australian market, thats fine, be open about it and they had better start withdrawing air-rights for airlines from Hong Kong, mainland China, UAE, Abu Dubai, Vietnam and arguably India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Fiji, PNG, Thailand and Singapore? Where would you like them to draw the line?
Its the number of specious, illogical, inconsistent and varying excuses that the government has offered that makes them such an obvious target of ridicule in this particular decision. Nealy all would agree that the actions at Doha Airport in 2020 are worth criticism, and Qantas and other interested parties in the aviation industry are able to lobby and put forward their own views but the minister sure has made a mess of it, and is not beyond criticism, last time I checked all people in the country are relitively free to question government decisions.