The Coalition Qantas breakup idea that lasted just seven hours

Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie has been forced into a backdown after she was publicly undercut by her leader for raising the prospect of forced airline breakups that could be used to split Qantas. Many of her colleagues were surprised to read an article in the Australian Financial Review from McKenzie arguing that a government competition review would fail if it did not look at divestiture, which could force Qantas to sell its budget arm Jetstar to bring down airfares. Bridget McKenzie called a press conference on Monday to play down her own piece from that morning.

Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Hours later, Nationals leader David Littleproud said the Coalition had not endorsed McKenzie’s idea as policy in an implicit rebuke to his senator, whose move distracted attention from similar bungles on the Labor side, including backflips over questions on sexuality and gender for the 2026 census. By 11.45am, McKenzie was insisting the Coalition had not changed its position, and claiming she had always opposed taking Qantas apart.



“In my opinion piece in the AFR that I hope you have all read, I explicitly rule out needing to break up Jetstar and Qantas,” McKenzie said at a press conference. That disclaimer does not appear in her original article. It argues that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will have “failed another reform opportunity unless he deals with divestiture as a measure to ensure consumers’ interests are protected, and not at the mercy of the entrenched duopoly”.

On Monday McKenzie said she wanted the government to consider all methods to bring down airfare prices. “What I would like the Treasurer to do is actually look at all the tools on how he’s going to address the excessive airfares that Australians are continuing to pay,” McKenzie said. Qantas has been under fire over airfares since the pandemic, when prices spiked and performance suffered, forcing its former chief executive Alan Joyce to bring forward his departure.

The Coalition has previously attacked big business over supermarket prices and support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. But Liberals were unhappy with McKenzie’s opinion piece on Monday morning, said senior party sources who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. McKenzie’s article fuelled an impression that the Liberals agreed with populist National Party demands to intervene in open markets, the sources said.

Littleproud said on Sky that the media had misinterpreted McKenzie’s article. “This is a sensible look at competition to ensure that we have cheaper airfares,” he said. Asked repeatedly whether she still supported giving regulators the power to order airlines to divest businesses at her press conference, McKenzie refused to rule it in or out.

A Qantas spokeswoman declined to comment but pointed to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reports that found no anticompetitive behaviour in aviation. Former ACCC chairman Allan Fels said he favoured having a divestment powers that the agency could apply to the courts to use against companies offences such as predatory behaviour. “I have no particular views on whether it would be appropriate to apply the law, in this case to Qantas, it would be up to a court of law,” Fells said.

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