Qantas speaks on Qantas Sale Act

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has commented that it is not “realistically achievable” for parliament to remove foreign ownership restrictions on the airline as required under the Qantas Sale Act, which requires the airline to be 51% Australian-owned. The Australian treasurer Joe Hockey has called for a debate on whether foreigners should be allowed to own or control Qantas. He described the Qantas Sale Act as “regulatory handcuffs”. Joyce commented that any change to the Act would not help to fix the “urgent and immediate matters at hand”, referring to the now foreign-government ownership of Virgin Australia which he says