Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has abruptly ended a press conference after reporters quizzed him about what notice his office was given about the Qantas grounding.
Mr Abbott has criticised the government for not acting more swiftly on Saturday when it was given three hours' notice of the Qantas decision.
Tens of thousands of passengers in Australia and overseas were left stranded when Qantas grounded its entire fleet at 5pm on Saturday and flagged a lockout of its staff.
Mr Abbott accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard of "dithering" when the government could have taken matters into its own hands rather than making an application to Fair Work Australia.
But Mr Abbott would not say when his office was advised of the grounding, when quizzed by reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
"The important thing is that the government was warned repeatedly by (Qantas boss) Alan Joyce of the possibility of a grounding should this dispute continue," he said. Pressed further, Mr Abbott said: "My office was in regular contact with Qantas.
"Qantas, as anyone at Parliament House would know, have basically been patrolling the corridors for weeks now, alerting people to the seriousness of the dispute."
The opposition leader then ended the press conference, prompting the government to go on the attack.
"Tony Abbott has a few questions to answer," Transport Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters later.
The Australian Greens also are demanding Mr Abbott reveal how early his office knew Qantas planned to ground its fleet.
"I'm joining the queue to find out what Tony Abbott knew about Qantas was going to do," leader Bob Brown told reporters in Canberra.
"I think he's got some questions to answer there."
