PM demands answers over deal failure
February 27 2002
Prime Minister John Howard today demanded a full explanation of why the Tesna syndicate withdrew its bid to buy Ansett.
Mr Howard said he was disappointed and felt sorry for Ansett employees who had hoped to get back their jobs with the collapsed airline.
The prime minister called for Ansett administrators and the Tesna syndicate to fully explain why the sale deal collapsed.
"My first thoughts are with the workers," Mr Howard told reporters in Adelaide.
"I feel very sorry for them, and it's particularly heartbreaking that it has happened right on the eve of this thing getting off the ground.
"I feel for the workers more than anything else and I'm very disappointed it has happened right at the end, out of the blue.
"People should explain and I think the workers are entitled to know, to have a full explanation as to why this decision has been taken.
"If it is a commercial one - which I gather it is - then fair enough, they should explain why.
"Seeing as all along people spoke positively and optimistically, it is very disappointing to the workers.
"The administrators should say something. Mr (Lindsay) Fox and Mr (Solomon) Lew should have something to say ... I'm not being critical, I'm just making the observation that the employees are entitled to know."
Mr Howard said the government was not to blame for the deal's collapse.
"I really do say to the Ansett employees, who were hoping to get, some of them, their jobs back, that the government's guarantee in relation to their entitlements which I gave on the 14th of September last year, that guarantee holds good," he said.
"It's not the government's fault that the Tesna thing has fallen over.
"I think everybody knows this was run very much by the administrators and the ACTU and Mr Fox and Mr Lew - on occasions the government was a bit left out of the loop but so be it.
"I'm sorry that this has occurred.
"I hope that the administrator immediately looks at the alternative bid, I hope the administrator doesn't look at liquidation."