Minister linked Qatar Airways decision to treatment of Australian women at Doha airport, FoI reveals

The coordinated timing of two key letters sent by the federal government about its decision to block extra flights for Qatar Airways, released under freedom of information, raise fresh questions about the role an incident at Doha airport played in the rejection. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) was consulted over a letter that the transport minister, Catherine King, was preparing to send to five Australian women suing Qatar Airways, telling them the airline’s push for more flights had been rejected, FoI documents reveal. The transport department also sought advice from Dfat about the wording of a separate letter it was to send to the Qatari government formally rejecting the request for 28 extra weekly flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The documents also reveal the Australian government heavily coordinated the timing of both letters when it formally rejected the request in July. The communications between the departments were obtained by Guardian Australia under a freedom of information request. The five women King wrote to in July had been among female passengers who in October 2020 were forced off planes at gunpoint at Doha airport and intimately examined without permission as authorities searched for the mother of a baby who had been abandoned in an airport toilet. The women are seeking damages from Qatar Airways and the Qatari government, and had lobbied King to reject the request for extra flights.<br/>