Senator LUDWIG (3:08 PM) —I move:

I say at the outset that I was shocked by the comments of Senator Ian Macdonald about the blame that he seems to think should lay at the feet of workers in relation to the collapse of Ansett. I was fortunate enough to attend two rallies in support of Ansett, in Brisbane and here in Canberra. It is perhaps poignant to say that there were young children and families at the rally. Young children are going to lose out because of the inaction and the inability of this government to put together a plan—to put together a vision of what an airline policy should be. One of the flyers I have seen—and I will seek to table it, if I may—states what Mr Anderson's responsibility is in relation to Ansett. It states that in June the chairman wrote to him and said that Mr Anderson knew Ansett was in trouble; that in August the CEO wrote to him; that last week management and employees begged him to help; that last Thursday the administrator requested support to keep Ansett flying while they found a buyer; and, lastly, that Mr Anderson did nothing and triggered this national disaster.

What did Mr Anderson do? Absolutely nothing. We have not heard from him about any plan he is going to put in place. What in fact is he going to do? All we hear from the government is that they are going to guarantee the workers' statutory entitlements. Tell us what the statutory entitlements are. Outline them. You have had enough time to come up with what the statutory entitlements are. You do not even know what the statutory entitlements are. You are not going to give the Stan Howard solution, are you? You are not going to be able to provide the entitlements. You are not going to be able to guarantee them 100 per cent. I hope that the first speaker from the government tells us quite clearly what they are going to do—that they are going to guarantee the entitlements 100 per cent.

But what we really want to hear from this government is that they have got a plan in place. We had Senator Ian Macdonald trying to explain his policy on regional Australia. His policy was bereft of comment about transport and about what really concerns regional Australia. How are those in regional Australia going to get around? Are you going to push them back to four-wheel drives? You are not going to maintain the roads. You are not going to maintain the airlines. What will you maintain? You will maintain the pension, by the sound of it.

This is one of the biggest corporate collapses that we have witnessed and this government is silent on what it is going to do. Not only are there the 16,000-odd Ansett employees directly affected by this but also there are the knock-on effects. There are up to 70,000 workers, I suspect, who are directly or indirectly going to be affected by this national crisis. And what is this government doing? Nothing. All government members can do is sit there and interject. Mr Anderson, in the last press release I read on his web site, simply makes a statement that Ansett has gone into liquidation. No more! Nothing else! That is the extent of it. No sympathy for the workers—no sympathy for anyone. It is simply an understatement of grand proportions.

What have we heard from Minister Kelly? What have we heard from Minister Kelly about the tourist industry? What action plan are we going to have to ensure that the tourist industry does not suffer as a result of this? The only thing that we hear is that, on top of a GST on the tourist industry, we are now to have another levy imposed on the tourist industry. We have not heard about what the government are going to do to ensure that discount airfares continue. We have not heard from the government about what they will do about the tourist industry. I hope the first speaker from the government goes through these issues and tells us what the statutory entitlements are going to be. The Ansett employees out at the rally wanted to know. The Ansett employees who were in this building today wanted to know. Are you going to tell them what their statutory entitlements are? Are you going to tell them what Minister Kelly will do in relation to the tourist industry as a result of this collapse? Is Minister Macdonald going to tell them what will happen to regional Australia? What are mining employees going to do? Ansett had airline services to Mount Isa, to Weipa and to all sorts of places. Have we heard from this government about what they are going to do? Silence. There has been absolutely nothing. You sit and warm your seats, but you do not do anything. You do not do anything but try to be critical of our raising of this issue. What are you doing? You are doing nothing. And that is the problem. You act like crows on a fence. (Time expired)