OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says the suspension of all Qantas flights could have been avoided with earlier government action.

Mr Abbott says the airline is an essential service and an important part of the economy.

''The government has been procrastinating for weeks about this and now it's urgent that it be solved immediately,'' Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne.

''It is the responsibility of government to ensure that essential services operate and that brand Australia is not damaged.''

Mr Abbott said it was a test of the government's competence.

''We had enormous costs being imposed on the Australian economy by this industrial action,'' he said.

''We've had industrial action by the unions, we've now got industrial action by the company.

''The important thing is that the planes get back into the sky and the government needs to use the powers available to it to make that happen as soon as they can.''

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown says Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott should haul Qantas chief Alan Joyce into line.

''This lock-out is also a sell-out of the spirit of Australia,'' Senator Brown said in a statement tonight.

''It is a multi-millionaires lock-out of responsible decent pilots, crew and other staff whose work gives Australia the world's best airline.''

He said the lock-out was all about ''exporting Qantas to a world of lower cost, lower services values and lower safety''.

''The government should stand up to Qantas selfish top brass,'' Senator Brown said.

The Australian Shareholders' Association, who with unions voted against a Qantas executive pay rise at the airline's AGM this week, said that over the past five years Qantas CEOs, including Mr Joyce and his predecessor, Geoff Dixon, had received $55 million and the non-executive directors $13 million.

Meanwhile, former industrial relations minister Peter Reith says Labor is partly to blame for the Qantas industrial dispute that has led to the company grounding its entire fleet.

Mr Reith said the union's ''guerilla campaign'' had left Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce little choice but to take the dramatic action.

''He's got to do whatever he can to bring to an end this madness,'' Mr Reith told Sky News.

''The claims being made by some of these unions are completely unreasonable and I don't think Alan Joyce had any choice.''

Mr Reith said Labor legislation had made the industrial dispute possible.

''The Labor government of course bears a lot of responsibility for what's happened.

''They have made it easier for the unions to take strike action.''

Mr Reith said he did not know how Fair Work Australia would respond to the crisis because it was increasingly stacked with ''union types'''.