Quantas and the Australian style of argument

I'm not sure that I've seen this extremely interesting form of argumentation before. Quantas, the Australian airline, is in dire financial straits. Their international routes are losing bucketloads and are being subsidised by their very juicy profits on their domestic routes. Etihad, the parent company of Emirates, is looking to raise its stake in Virgin Australia. Quantas is arguing that this must not be allowed to happen:

“Etihad will cross-subsidise Virgin’s domestic business with the specific aim of weakening Qantas,” claims an internal Qantas briefing paper, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Virgin/Etihad will be able to flood the market with capacity until its competition is forced to significantly reduce its own operations or worse.”

That is, they must not be allowed to cross subsidise because it will damage our own cross subsidies.

I've always had this impression of Australia, of Australians, of being a pretty straightforward sort of place and people. Willing to give everyone a fair go, no side or pompousness to them.

Ah well, I suppose even the Lucky Country has to have its share of brazen hypocrites.