17th Jul 2014, 12:34 PM – Senate Qantas Sale Amendment Bill 2014 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

The majority agreed to pass the bill (in parliamentary jargon, they wanted to give it a third reading).

What next for the bill?

Because several amendments were made in the Senate, the bill will now be sent back to the House of Representatives so that the Members of Parliament (MPs) there can decide whether they agree to the changes. If the MPs do agree, the bill will become law. You can keep track with the progress of the bill through both houses of Parliament on the bill's homepage.

What does the bill do?

The main idea of the bill is to remove the foreign ownership and other restrictions that apply to Qantas but do not apply to other airlines based in Australia (read more on ABC News and on ABC's AM).

Background to the bill

The Government introduced this bill after refusing to give Qantas a debt guarantee (see ABC News), which Qantas had wanted because it looked like credit agencies may downgrade to Qantas’ credit rating (see the bills digest).

The current restrictions on Qantas include:

• limits on the issue of Qantas shares and their ownership
• the makeup of the board of directors
• use of the name Qantas and the location of the head office
• the place of incorporation and the principle place of business.