Mr. Papalia questions the Minister for Tourism regarding due diligence on the Perth-Singapore Qantas route, suggesting the Minister should have investigated the route's long-term viability. The Minister defends the marketing arrangement's value despite reduced flight frequency.

AnsweredQoN 79Legislative Assembly
Asked
27 February 2014
Portfolio
Tourism

QuestionView source ↗

QANTAS —
PERTH–SINGAPORE ROUTE
79. Mr P. PAPALIA to the
Minister for Tourism:
I have a
supplementary question. Given the minister's acknowledgement that she
knew from March last year that this route looked dodgy in Qantas's eyes—it
reduced the number of flights—does the minister not think that due
diligence on behalf of the taxpayer would have involved determining whether it
was going to be sustained in the long term?

AnswerView source ↗

First of
all, I reject the premise that any route being operated by Qantas would be
considered dodgy. Yes, it reduced the serviceability from two flights daily to
one flight daily, but I will say it again because I think it is important that
people understand: the value in this arrangement is getting our brands straight
in front —
Mr P. Papalia interjected.
The SPEAKER : Thank you very much,
member for Warnbro. I have asked you to stop shouting out. I call you to order
for the second time.
Mrs L.M. HARVEY : I will repeat this
once again, in case members did not hear me the first time: the value is in
getting our brands under the noses of people who are considering travelling.
Several
members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park,
I call you to order for the third time.
Mrs L.M. HARVEY : That very much forms
the part of the other joint marketing arrangements we have with a range of
other airlines. We have joint marketing arrangements with Singapore Airlines,
Scoot and Qatar Airways. We have them with a range of other carriers and the
purpose of this is to get our branding under the noses of the loyalty databases
of the airline frequent flyer programs. That is the essence of it and that is
where the value of the arrangement is. We will continue to work to ensure that
we get value for money out of that arrangement.

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