Qantas Sale Amendment Bill 2014

The majority supported the main idea of the bill (in parliamentary jargon, they wanted to give it a second reading). This means the senators can now discuss the bill in more detail.

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.