Lib MP calls for Qantas Sale Act change

A federal Liberal MP has advanced the case for changing statutory ownership limits on Qantas, saying the national carrier is operating with a regulatory straitjacket.

Dan Tehan, convenor of the Coalition Friends of Tourism, says the time has come to ask whether "we want to ground the flying kangaroo or let it fly".

His comments come as the Abbott government considers options for helping Qantas to overcome increased competition and a flagging bottom line.

The airline believes that the Qantas Sale Act, enacted more than 20 years ago, is preventing it from being competitive against overseas rivals.

Mr Tehan says Qantas has suffered and not prospered as legislators had hoped.

"The time has come for us to deal with aviation in Australia without romantic sentiment," he wrote in The Australian on Wednesday.

In the past 30 years, the development of a more liberated and open aviation sector had led to a global industry that placed enormous pressure on carriers that relied on the protection of states for their funds.

In this new world, the Qantas Sale Act was working against the interests of the very company it was legislated to protect.

"It needs to be changed," Mr Tehan said.

Of the G20 countries, only Russia, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Argentina and China maintained any majority holding in airlines, while Turkey retained a minority stake, he said.

The US had never owned a public carrier or given an airline a "national" status.

The Qantas Sale Act was designed to protect the national carrier from international influence, Mr Tehan said.

The reality was that it acted as a regulatory straitjacket, preventing the airline from being a true competitor both within and beyond Australian airspace.

The MP said an opportunity now existed to frame Qantas as a fully privatised and prosperous enterprise rather than "a parochial anachronism of a bygone era".

Opposition transport and tourism spokesman Anthony Albanese said Labor was very firmly against changing the Qantas Sale Act.

The airline was not "just another company", but played a vital role in the Australian national economic interest, he told reporters in Canberra.

Lifting foreign ownership restrictions would lead Qantas to split up, an outcome that would have severe consequences for those living in regional communities.

Mr Albanese said lifting restrictions was not a priority for Qantas, which had flagged other forms of assistance such as government investment in the airline.

Labor would consider constructively any proposal from government discussions with Qantas that ensured it remained a strong Australian-based airline.