Putting emotions aside, has the logic of caping foreign ownership of a "national airline" been fully explained?

Putting emotions aside, has the logic of caping foreign ownership of a "national airline" been fully explained?

Have the arguments been articulated and are they sound?

Have the economic, political and social benefits or disadvantages been critically assessed?

Have decision makers been made to account for these outcomes?

Do we have a deficit of critical thinking in our national media that has failed to address the questions above?

If the government doesn't want to own Qantas then it should back away from saying who can invest and who cannot. If the government wants to have a say on ownership then it should take back control. 

The government's effective stranglehold of the airline is a bit like saying to an adult that they can live where they like so long as they live where you say and they can only be friends with a select group hand picked for them. 

If they're worried about needing aircraft in the event of an emergency or war, they can rent aircraft from either Qantas or Virgin. They could even strike a deal with both airlines - support in an emergency in exchange for a subsidy, or special tax deal. That's what the British government did for the shipping lines of the early 20th century. 

Agreed.

I find it unsatisfactory that the public discourse has not delved into the factual accuracy of the assumptions underlying the existing framework.

At times I feel our media is not unlike that of the media in the French Republic...

I'm all for nationalism, but if the government continues to manacle Qantas (despite it being a private company) then we won't have a national airline. 

Id rather see Qantas foreign owned, but providing Australian jobs than no Qantas at all. 

I admit, I much prefer the Emirati carriers to Qantas, but that's partly because I don't feel Qantas offers the same kind of service and I don't feel paying more for less is appropriate (one of the hood things about the Emirates alliance has been fare matching on many routes - bringing Qantas' prices down). 

But Qantas isn't able to access the same kind of capital as its competitors because of the ownership restrictions. 

While Virgin  is foreign owned, they maintain a strong Australian presence and Employ many Australians. So the whole foreign owned scare campaign is ridiculous. 

It's also worth saying - regrettably - that it won't matter whether Qantas is Australian owned or not: heavy maintenance will disappear from our shores in time. That flight has departed (felt the ship has sailed metaphor was inappropriate).