Rex Airlines has entered voluntary administration, leaving thousands of workers in limbo. The Transport Workers Union says it's been told more than 600 jobs will go.
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00:00The nationals and unions are on a rare unity ticket of sorts, both calling for the federal
00:07government to step in and provide financial assistance to the airline.
00:13The union, the transport workers union, going a step further beyond the calls of some other
00:19unions and the nationals in saying that the government should actually seriously consider
00:26taking an equity stake in Rex.
00:29Now that would mean government ownership of an airline again.
00:33Of course, going back to Ansett, that was the case, but it hasn't been for some time.
00:39And yet again, we are seeing a situation where a regional carrier, albeit one that has ventured
00:46into flying on routes between capital cities, is struggling.
00:55It's of note here that at a state government level, in Queensland and WA, the Rex, the
01:01carrier, is subsidised to fly on some of those more regional routes as well.
01:08So they already do receive some assistance from various levels of government.
01:12They also received a package of support during COVID from the federal government then as
01:20well.
01:21So the federal government has been saying, look, this has only just happened.
01:26But initially they are saying they've been quite critical of Rex's venture into providing
01:35more services to capital cities, saying that the primary focus is to ensure that these
01:41regional flights do continue, and in many cases, the only flights between regions.
01:48They say they're yet to receive a specific request for financial support, but the transport
01:53minister, Catherine King, says they would be hesitant to just provide money with no
02:00strings attached, saying they would rather see a longer-term approach.
02:07The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has also said how critical these flights are, particularly
02:11for some of those regions where they are the only airlines operating, and has said
02:19that as part of this process, they are working with other airlines on potential for workers,
02:27if they are put off by Rex, to be re-employed by some of the other carriers.
02:34Servicing these regional routes is really important for regional communities and for
02:38regional economies.
02:39We know that.
02:40The Prime Minister, Minister King, the Premier of NSW have all made a similar point, which
02:45is that we want to see those regional services continue.
02:50Minister King, Catherine King, is also talking with the other airlines to make sure that
02:55if there are job losses, that the other airlines can re-employ and re-deploy some of these
03:00workers as well.
03:03Now on the job front, there has been a meeting underway with administrators, and the latest
03:07fears in terms of jobs affected by this are that there will be up to 360 job losses due
03:15to the grounding of the 737 planes, so the ones that are used for those capital city
03:21flights, and also a potential 250 across other areas of the business, so some 610 all up,
03:30with warnings that could grow up to around 850 as a result of this.
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