[Ash W]

Anthony think you will find the comment was directed at company and income taxes, not operating taxes which is what you seem to be talking about. Weather Qantas flies there or not has nothing what so ever to do with trying to level the playing field.

Now if Qantas were to operate to the UAE they and their staff would still very much pay Australian corporate and income taxes. If however they were to set-up base in the UAE then they wouldn't.

In fact this example actually highlights the difficulty faced by Qantas and other airlines in trying to compete with airlines from the gulf and shows the inequity which different airlines need to deal with and why Qantas needs to look at setting up offshore operations and bases. A similar issue applies when competing with airlines from lower labour cost countries etc. Qantas of course has lost the argument of protection so to compete now needs to look at other area's, such as staff costs and of course setting up a base in a country with lower costs such as the UAE or maybe even Malaysia!