On Tuesday, 28 July 2026 I attended the Health, Environment and Innovation Committee estimates hearings to ask questions of the Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation about public money being handed to mega commercial airlines to subsidise flights between Sydney and Brisbane.
You can read my exchange with the Minister below or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings here.
Mr BERKMAN: Minister, I want to return to the airline subsidies. The $75 million Connecting Queensland Fund is intended to, according to your media statement last year, ‘support regional communities’ and ensure Queensland’s iconic attractions and regions are more accessible. Why then has the fund so far only funded flights into South-East Queensland, including multiple Jetstar and Qantas flights from Sydney to Brisbane?
Mr POWELL: We continue to work with airports around Queensland, regional airports specifically, to secure additional flights. We look forward to making further announcements in due course.
Mr BERKMAN: Further to that, can you confirm for me how much Qantas and Jetstar have each received through this fund?
Mr POWELL: No, I cannot. Those amounts are commercial-in-confidence, as has been the longstanding practice of subsequent governments.
Mr BERKMAN: Minister, why should taxpayers fund Jetstar and Qantas, those massively profitable airlines, to deliver a few more flights in what are already quite well covered existing routes between capital cities?
Mr POWELL: I want to clarify that the member was listening to the earlier discussion around the importance of Greater Western Sydney as a new airport, servicing a multimillion-person population, and international airport as well. It will provide greater connectivity to Queensland. It is important that we were working alongside our domestic operators to ensure Queensland was one of the first beneficiaries of that airport opening. That is the whole purpose of Connecting Queensland—to look at strategic opportunities of this nature to ensure we get more international, more interstate and more intrastate air travel occurring, which means more visitors to Queensland and more visitors around Queensland, which means more hotels and caravan parks are full and more cafes and restaurants are benefiting, which means more local jobs both here in South-East Queensland and around regional Queensland.
Mr BERKMAN: I suspect I know the answer, Deputy Speaker, but I will ask anyway. Minister, will you rule out handing out more subsidies to these massively profitable airlines?
Mr POWELL: We have committed to a $75 million Connecting Queensland Fund. We will make sure that every single element of that $75 million is used strategically to produce benefits for both the Queensland tourism industry and the many operators, many of them family and small business owners, who provide the backbone of our tourism industry in this great state of Queensland.