How, and why, is Labor rewarding the kind of behaviour we are seeing from Qantas?

I truly admire her chutzpah. Never lies down. Never gives up. Carries on regardless. Don't complain. Only explain when there is absolutely no other choice.

But I also remember her as an enabler of sports rorts, the astonishing sporting grant scheme which saw loads of money - about $100 million - dished out to electorates which were priority seats for the Coalition in the lead-up to the 2019 federal electoral. Blushingly bad. Ignored the advice of Sport Australia. Funded a women's change room at a ground where no women's teams played. Maybe it was to encourage the club. That must have been it.

Anyhow, now she's having a lot of fun at the Senate inquiry into where and how airlines can operate in Australia. And until Wednesday morning, I had no idea she'd become a socialist.

Extremely exciting! Being in opposition is clearly a transformative experience. Let me explain. McKenzie was deep in conversation with ABC RN Breakfast's Patricia Karvelas talking about Qantas.

As she pointed out, our once great national carrier's reputation has been trashed. Board and management rolling in dough. Customers losing theirs. Selling tickets to ghost flights. Expiring flight credits. Shares going in the wrong direction. And worst of all, sacking 1700 workers illegally.

Now, at the time that happened, the Coalition backed in Alan Joyce's decision-making. As it did with every anti-worker action Joyce and his colleagues took. And there were many. So many.

But then McKenzie was silently silent. Now, her transmogrification is complete. She said of the Albanese government's nurturing of Qantas: "This to me is evidence of the worst of crony capitalism, when big government is in a very cosy and mutually beneficial relationship with big business."

I'm struggling to reconcile this Bridget McKenzie with Sportsrorts Macca - but maybe it's the sheer scale of the cosiness which appals her. Me too.

Those who know - and understand - what goes on within the Labor Party are surprised it's taking the government so long to protect workers.

Still, the steadfast Transport Workers Union is pushing for general regulation of the aviation industry and the most recent ALP annual conference saw some concessions around that. Yes, aviation is prone to experience shocks more intensely than other industries (ash clouds, weather events, bird strikes, COVID) so governments need to be able to come in and prop them up.

But during the most recent period of propping we have seen a huge decline in worker conditions, including the appalling "fire and rehire" tactic where staff are sacked and then reengaged with less pay and fewer entitlements. Two staff members can be doing precisely the same job but earn different pay from different contractors; and of course, other brutal anti-union tactics, for example, illegally sacking 1700 people. Do we love the High Court or what?

But one has to address McKenzie's allegation of crony capitalism. Why have successive governments been so tight with Qantas? I get why the Coalition had no truck with the TWU.

But why is Labor behaving the same way?

A brief look at the history of COVID would show the TWU was right in calling early for a shutdown of borders; in calling early for ready supply of rapid antigen tests; was right to call out the sacking of the 1700 workers as illegal. Now it's calling for a Safe and Secure Skies Commission consistent with ALP policy.

Catherine King should jump on this straight away.

Look, I won't bore you with all the details of my disappointments when I flew on Qantas for the first time in years in August. The cost. The service. The food. The fear my bags would end up in Paris when I was only flying to Darwin. And none of that is the fault of those who work for Qantas. Every single aspect of what we've all experienced as we hop on the flying kangaroo is an outcome of the decisions of management. And management is being allowed to get away with murder. It's even being supported by this government. Its sheer brute domination of the airline sector is being supported by this government. I mean, I doubt we will actually ever find out why Labor has decided to allow the company to behave like this - but maybe crony capitalism is the right way to think about it.

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Economist Cameron Murray, author of Rigged, says there are definitely clues. "It's not a direct revolving door but an exchange of favours which appears to be happening," he says.

And what's troubling is that those small exchanges don't have to be worth very much in order to get favourable decision-making, the effect of which can amount to many tens and hundreds of millions of dollars benefit to the companies concerned. I have no idea what happened with the decision to block Qatar Airways but I know this. When it comes to plane fares, the more competition the better for consumers.

Murray, who now runs his own consultancy, Fresh Economic Thinking, says even politicians are social mammals.

"We tend to unconsciously favour people like us. It can feel good as a politician - you've got a tough decision to make and Qantas has looked after you in the past," he says.

The problem is this government is favouring Qantas when there is no obvious merit - no objective reason - to do that very thing. It hurts consumers. It hurts voters. And it rewards a company which has behaved so badly to workers in the past and today. How is Labor rewarding this kind of behaviour?