Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has called for an inquiry into the government’s decision to block the extra Qatar Airways flights, which had potential to reduce airfares and boost the Australian tourism industry.

“It’s very easy to assume that this government is continuing to run a protection racket for the most complained about company in our country,” McKenzie said on Monday.

“There are a number of serious questions that need to be asked.”

McKenzie has formally sought the public release of documents relating to the decision by Transport Minister Catherine King.

“A section of the Labor Party knows it’s not doing them any good to have such a cosy, close relationship with Qantas,” she said.

The move to block the flights has come under scrutiny after it was revealed Qantas lobbied the government to do so, before posting a record $2.5 billion profit over the 2022/23 financial year.

Qatar Airways runs 28 flights a week to major airports around the country and had hoped to expand its services before the government blocked the proposal.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said there was a “murkiness” around the rejection.

“They’ve given seven different reasons in seven different days to stop Qatar flying those new routes,” he said.

“(The prime minister) has got to start listening to Australians. If you want to go and visit family overseas or want to go on a holiday, you don’t want to be paying thousands of dollars more for airfares.”

Queensland’s Labor government, represented by acting premier Steven Miles, has also spoken out against its federal counterpart.

“We would want to see as many flights into Queensland as possible,” he said on Monday.

“Let’s hope that common sense prevails and this decision is actually reversed.”

Rex Airlines deputy chair and former federal transport minister John Sharp said overturning the flight decision would be an appropriate course of action.

“Qantas plays the game very ruthlessly, they play it to win,” he said.

At the end of a horror week for Qantas marked by a senate grilling on delays and cancelled flights, it was revealed CEO Alan Joyce had received more than $10 million worth of shares.

Sharp said he thought consumers’ opinions of the airline should have been a factor in deciding whether to award bonuses to executives.

“The board has to make its own mind up on these things but certainly it would be difficult to, in my view, justify paying huge bonuses when at the same time the reputation of the company has been so badly damaged,” he said.

On Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it has launched Federal Court action against Qantas, alleging it sold tickets to as many as 8000 cancelled flights.

After the news broke, Qantas that afternoon announced it had scrapped an expiration date on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of travel credits set up in the wake of cancelled flights during the pandemic.

Qantas had almost $500m worth of credits and Jetstar nearly $100m, amid complaints about difficulty accessing them and that unclaimed credits would have been kept by the airlines when the previous deadline expired.

-with AAP

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