Senators spent Thursday morning trying to determine whether Transport Minister Catherine King met with Qantas bosses earlier this year when she first received a brief regarding Qatar’s application.

A day earlier, the inquiry heard from Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka that, when she met with Ms King in January – not long after she had received the brief – it was her understanding that negotiations would be entered into.

It was not until July that Ms King made her ultimate determination – blocking Qatar’s bid and blindsiding the airline.

She has offered the public a host of reasons as to why she made such a decision, but it was public servants from the transport department on Thursday who gave senators the most comprehensive list yet behind the determination.

The senate committee, set up after Ms King repeatedly refused to answer the Coalition’s questions about the decision, had previously heard Qantas was an “aggressive” player in Canberra and vigorously lobbied government on matters that threatened the national carrier’s market share.

The transport leaders would not be drawn on how influential Qantas had been in the process, and could not provide answers about any meetings, but under intense questioning from Simon Birmingham, Transport Group Deputy Secretary Marisa Purvis-Smith offered the “range of reasons” as to why Ms King had made the decision.

“She took into consideration a range of factors. They included: what is happening in the aviation and international aviation market at the moment; what is happening with the Covid recovery; what is happening with the capacity coming back into the system, particularly from other aviation suppliers and where are they up to and the impact on jobs in the long term,” she said.

“That was a range, but not the definitive full set of factors she took into account. Ultimately, it is a decision for the minister.”

Ms King has also conceded that an incident in Doha airport in 2020 – where five Australian women were ordered off a plane at gun point and strip searched – had formed part of her decision.

Senators seek to establish timeline

The inquiry heard that Qatar made the application to increase its flight offerings in August last year,

A brief in relation to the request was finalised by the department in early January and given to Ms King.

That brief was aimed to help the minister determine whether or not negotiations or consultations should be entered into with Qatar.

There were early indications that Ms King would enter into negotiations and make that public, but it was not until July she determined otherwise.

A day earlier, Ms Hrdlicka said she had met with Ms King in mid-January, and it was her understanding the minster would meet with Qantas on or around January 23.

Ms Hrdlicka told the committee that after her meeting, she expected a positive outcome to be announced by Ms King soon after.

The inquiry heard Ms King had been told Mr Joyce was “unhappy”, and the pair were expected to meet around January 23.

Inquiry chair Bridget McKenzie pushed for the public servants to detail whether Ms King or her office had met with senior Qantas officials at or around that time.

She slammed the public servants for dodging the committee’s questions, saying the “protection racket” being run by the government was “incredible”, and asked the department to hand over a comprehensive list of meetings and discussions between the department and Qantas.

Senator Birmingham was flabbergasted by the lack of detail public servants had about meetings with then- Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, and called on them to urgently seek confirmation from Ms King’s office.

“Because if it did, we appear to have gone from a situation where the minister thought she was going to sign it off (in January) in the space of the next week or two and publicly released it, to one where she lingered for the next six months with no request to the department for further information,” Senator Birmingham said.

“With no further analysis provided by the department. seemingly nothing provided by any other department of state or government agency.

“So something happened at that point in time, and that is a critical juncture. So I hope that you can get that transparency from the office.”

The officials did confirm Mr Joyce had met with the government in November 2022.

Earlier, Senator McKenzie hit out at the Qantas executives for showing a “level of arrogance that our once-beloved national carrier shouldn’t be displaying”.

“We are trying to get to the bottom of the Qatar Airways decision and the lobbying that they had done to government,” she told 9 News on Thursday morning.

“We know this decision has cost $3bn over five years.”