QF to remain majority Australian after the Senate forces changes to Lib plan

[markis10]

Qantas will remain majority Australian owned after the Abbott government was forced by a hostile Senate to back down on its ambitious plan to open up the airline to foreign investment.
In an admission its plan to repeal section three of the Qantas Sale Act would not win support from Labor, the Greens or the crossbench, federal cabinet approved a compromise proposed by the ALP on Monday night.
The compromise deal was ticked off by the Coalition party room on Tuesday and comes despite Transport Minister Warren Truss declaring back in March the government had “no plan B” to help the airline if its repeal of the Sale Act failed.
In June, Labor announced it would allow the current foreign ownership restrictions on Qantas contained in section three of the act, which limit an individual investor to 25 per cent ownership and a foreign-owned airline to 35 per cent, to both rise to 49 per cent.


Read more: Qantas to remain Australian as Coalition and Labor agree to limit increase in foreign ownership

 

[JessicaTam]

I wonder if AJ will still cry poor? Or put a positive take on the move to boost morale and confidence.

 

[medhead]

Something that could have happened 3 years ago.

I doubt Joyce knows how to build morale.

 

[cmon0005]

Woohoo, this is good news and probably a sensible compromise, give a bit but not too much take.

 

[straitman]

I wonder if AJ will still cry poor? Or put a positive take on the move to boost morale and confidence.

He will still cry poor :!;

I doubt if he even knows how to put a positive spin on anything and if so I cannot recall where he has ever done so previously.

(Don't get me started)

 

[Flying High]

Can anyone explain the rationale behind restricting foreign ownership of Qantas but allowing its competitors to be fully foreign owned?

 

[medhead]

Can anyone explain the rationale behind restricting foreign ownership of Qantas but allowing its competitors to be fully foreign owned?

The competitor Australian based international airlines have the same restriction, in principle.

 

[moa999]

IMHO this doesn't change anything and certainly doesn't address the main issues that QF faces.

While Virgin Group (the listed entity) is now near 80% foreign owned,
the Virgin Australia International airline is under 50% foreign owned.
-- Just don't go asking for who the shareholders are, whether the separate Board actually meets and what the financials are.

 

[markis10]

Can anyone explain the rationale behind restricting foreign ownership of Qantas but allowing its competitors to be fully foreign owned?

Its a legacy of the removal of Qantas off the public books, and in a way a security over the forgiveness of debts that arose from various government funded capital injections. The Qantas Sale act should not be confused with Australian owned carrier provisions of the air navigation act.

 

[serfty]

Of course the elephant in the room here is maintenance.

It now will continue to still have to be performed with the majority on Oz.

 

[medhead]

IMHO this doesn't change anything and certainly doesn't address the main issues that QF faces.

While Virgin Group (the listed entity) is now near 80% foreign owned,
the Virgin Australia International airline is under 50% foreign owned.
-- Just don't go asking for who the shareholders are, whether the separate Board actually meets and what the financials are.

As a pty ltd company I'm sure they have statutory reporting requirements.

Its a legacy of the removal of Qantas off the public books, and in a way a security over the forgiveness of debts that arose from various government funded capital injections. The Qantas Sale act should not be confused with Australian owned carrier provisions of the air navigation act.

No, they shouldn't be confused. But they effectively have the same limitation. I'm sure a clever person can work out a structure to achieve the same result for Qantas domestic as for VA domestic.

 

[markis10]

No, they shouldn't be confused. But they effectively have the same limitation. I'm sure a clever person can work out a structure to achieve the same result for Qantas domestic as for VA domestic.

They are nowhere near the same limitation, as it stands the ANA requires a simple 51% Aussie owned content while the Qantas Sale Act, introduced when the airline was first privatised, imposed additional restrictions on Qantas including a max 25% per foreign investor and a cap of 35% in total for foreign airline investment by all airlines in QF.

 

[Himeno]

They are nowhere near the same limitation, as it stands the ANA requires a simple 51% Aussie owned content while the Qantas Sale Act, introduced when the airline was first privatised, imposed additional restrictions on Qantas including a max 25% per foreign investor and a cap of 35% in total for foreign airline investment by all airlines in QF.

That's not the point. They are amending the Qantas Sale Act and changing the foreign ownership limits from 25/35% to 49%.
They should just remove the foreign ownership parts of the Qantas Sale Act entirely as they would still have the limits imposed by the Air Navigation Act.

 

[markis10]

That's not the point. They are amending the Qantas Sale Act and changing the foreign ownership limits from 25/35% to 49%.
They should just remove the foreign ownership parts of the Qantas Sale Act entirely as they would still have the limits imposed by the Air Navigation Act.

The amendments don't make it the same as the ANA act in the case of the entity, which of course why they are doing it in the first place and not just gutting it.

 

[medhead]

They are nowhere near the same limitation, as it stands the ANA requires a simple 51% Aussie owned content while the Qantas Sale Act, introduced when the airline was first privatised, imposed additional restrictions on Qantas including a max 25% per foreign investor and a cap of 35% in total for foreign airline investment by all airlines in QF.

The point of this thread is that they are getting rid of the 25% and 35% limits. Meaning 51% Australian owned, effectively the same as ANA.

As for the difference with the QSA applying to an entity, as I mentioned - nothing a clever person couldn't fix with a restructure.

 

[drron]

Hint.Jetstar is not called Qantas.

 

[TomVexille]

Of course the elephant in the room here is maintenance.

It now will continue to still have to be performed with the majority on Oz.

Which as we know is supposedly more expensive.

 

[TomVexille]

Hint.Jetstar is not called Qantas.

Don't tell me you're suggesting the OS/Tyrolean scenario...

 

[casanovawa]

Something that could have happened 3 years ago.

I doubt Joyce knows how to build morale.

I'm pretty sure he knows his resignation would have the staff partying in the hallways (and most customers as well i imagine), he's just not that interested in it....

 

[cambriamarsh]

IMHO this doesn't change anything and certainly doesn't address the main issues that QF faces.

While Virgin Group (the listed entity) is now near 80% foreign owned,
the Virgin Australia International airline is under 50% foreign owned.
-- Just don't go asking for who the shareholders are, whether the separate Board actually meets and what the financials are.

If it's a separate company the accounts should be on ASIC. They need to be filed per the Corporations Act. Might be interesting reading if someone wants to spend the~$50 to get a copy.