Qantas reassures lawmakers it will remain Australian

Qantas Airways promised to remain an Australian airline while staying firm on the need for a new Asian hub as its CEO was grilled by lawmakers about the grounding of all flights last weekend that left tens of thousands stranded.

But Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce on Friday said a private bill before Australia's parliament, to ensure Qantas jobs remain in Australia, would threaten the airline's viability and hamper its ability to expand internationally.

While the bill does not have government or opposition support, it would prevent the use of foreign crews on domestic flights and guarantee all workers are employed on Australian conditions rather than lower wages offshore.

"The bill contemplates locking Qantas inside Australian borders," the Irish-born Joyce told the hearing in Canberra.

"We must be free to pursue global opportunities."

The airline announced Asian expansion plans in August to help turn around its loss-making international division, saying it would cut 1,000 jobs, set up a new premium Asian airline and a joint-venture budget Japanese carrier.

Joyce said the plans were consistent with the existing Qantas Sale Act, brought in after the privatisation of the group, ensures the airline must remain majority Australian owned, and keep its headquarters in Australia.

Joyce told Friday's hearing the Qantas board had not considered closing its international arm, and was confident of turning around the long-haul business.

The Asian move angered airline worker unions, which launched a series of work stoppages and slowdowns and prompted Qantas to ground its entire fleet last weekend in order to force a resolution to an ongoing dispute over pay, conditions and job security.

The shutdown stranded tens of thousands of passengers and angered the federal government, which intervened and sent the dispute to the workplace umpire, Fair Work Australia, which then ordered an end to the industrial action.

Lawmakers at the parliamentary inquiry repeatedly questioned Joyce for almost three hours about his decision to ground the airline, and pressed him on whether the move had been long planned.

But Joyce said he alone made the decision due to ongoing union threats. The chief executive then said he called a board meeting for Saturday morning, and it endorsed the decision.

Joyce conceded the move has sparked many conspiracy theories that Qantas had planned the shutdown well ahead of Saturday. But he said the decision even caught many Qantas executives by surprise.

He said one senior manager could not be contacted because he was meeting an architect about building a house, while three members of the Qantas public relations team found themselves stranded in Melbourne and had to buy tickets on rival airline Virgin Australia .

"Three of them were at the races in Melbourne and got trapped in Melbourne and had to buy Virgin tickets to get back (to Sydney)," he said.

Transport Workers Union national secretary Tony Sheldon said Qantas wanted to cut wages and conditions, and hire cheaper workers offshore, and had refused to make an offer to end the dispute over the past five months.

"The Qantas Sale Act in its intent was not to execute 1000 jobs in this country and use the savings to send those jobs offshore," Sheldon told the inquiry.

"My advice to Qantas is stop threatening this parliament, stop threatening your workforce and stop threatening your passengers."

But a defiant Joyce said Qantas needed to adapt to survive, signalling a tough stance ahead of talks with the unions over the next three weeks.

"If we don't adapt and change Qantas, it will not be around," he said.