Mr TRUSS (Wide Bay—Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) (14:08): I thank the member for Mallee for the question. We have heard a lot in the last 12 hours or so from the Leader of the Opposition about the threats to Australian jobs once part 3 of the Qantas Sale Act has been repealed. If you believe the Leader of the Opposition, there would be thousands of jobs lost overseas. He refers to the board and the chairman, the cabin crew and the flight attendants, and even the head office being moved overseas. It just shows how little the Labor Party understands about aviation policy. The reality is that the Air Navigation Act ensures that Australian international airlines have to be majority Australian owned. Our air services agreements require that the boards of international airlines have to be majority Australian—two-thirds have to be Australians. The chairman has to be an Australian, the head office has to be in Australia, the operational base must be in Australia and of course they must be majority owned in this country. Mr Perrett: Because we are Australian. We believe in it. The SPEAKER: The member for Moreton is warned. Mr TRUSS: So the doomsday scenario that the opposition suggests is simply not going to happen. Even if Qantas were to be like Virgin and separate its domestic arm from its international operations, the Air Navigation Act, the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Corporations Act, the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations, the Fair Work Act and immigration regulations would all continue to apply. Honourable members may remember that Virgin, Rex and Skywest were all at some stage 100 per cent foreign owned, but I did not notice any foreign crew on board; I did not notice that they were importing food or in fact using foreign ground crew. The reality is that Virgin's head office is in Brisbane, their ground crews are in Australia, 75 per cent of their maintenance is done in Australia, their catering is done in Australia and their flight crews are Australian. Virgin employs about 9,500 people in its operations, and 9,000 of them are Australians. Mr Snowdon interjecting— The SPEAKER: The member for Lingiari will curb his language. Mr TRUSS: Qantas is this proud Australian icon. They are not going to move their head office to any other part of the world, no matter who owns them. Their proudest boast is that they are Australian. And we want to make sure that they remain a strong airline, that they can be free from the restrictions that they have at the present time and that there can be a level playing field for Qantas, our airline. The opposition can give them a chance to save Australian jobs and to build a strong airline by supporting the repeal of part 3.