The Prime Minister has distanced herself from claims she should have intervened sooner in the Qantas dispute and has tried to shift the blame back to the airline for its "extreme" action.

As both political parties were struggling today to claim the moral high ground, Ms Gillard said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce had never asked the government to take action.

The Prime Minister begins the parliamentary sitting week managing the industrial relations crisis, which has called into question her leadership and the industrial relations system she was instrumental in drafting.

"Alan Joyce did not ask the government to [intervene]," she said this morning.

"Let's be very clear here about the timeline and what happened. On Friday, Qantas was saying it was in the business of negotiating this dispute.

"Two o'clock Saturday, Alan Joyce contacts our Minister for Transport, Anthony Albanese, and says the planes will be grounded at 5pm.

"It wasn't put as a topic for discussion or as an option - he was just advising minister Albanese it was happening."

The government acted immediately to apply to Fair Work Australia to have the industrial action terminated, she said.

"As a result of what the government did, the Qantas planes will be back in the sky later today."

This morning Mr Albanese told ABC Radio that Qantas had made "cynical attempts" to shift blame, "and to say that if the Prime Minister had picked up the phone, there would have been change".

"When I was told by Mr Joyce, I asked 'Was there anything we could do?' He informed me that the decision was a board decision, and it was done," Mr Albanese said.   "That was on Saturday afternoon, and at no stage, at no stage, did he raise with me Section 431 [of the Fair Work Act to have the management's action terminated]."

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott criticised the government for not intervening sooner, suggesting it could have used ministerial powers under Section 431.

"I think the public has had a win, but it is no thanks to the Gillard government," he said.

"The government didn't do anything; so many people have been sitting in terminals because the government has been sitting on its hands.

"Julia Gillard wrote the act - she should know what's in it and she should have used the powers that she gave the government to sort out very serious industrial disputes like this."

He said that the Labor government had been slow to act because it was compromised by its close relationship to the unions.

Ms Gillard has labelled the Qantas action - which clearly took the government by surprise - as "extreme".

"On Friday, Qantas was reassuring that they were negotiating the dispute and obviously they were doing that because they saw the prospects of getting to a negotiated settlement," she said.

"Then, on Saturday at 2pm, with very little warning to government or any member of the travelling public, Qantas grounded the planes."

She said it was a "silly suggestion" that Labor had failed to act because it feared offending its union allies.

Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said Mr Joyce made no request to speak to Ms Gillard on Saturday before he announced he was grounding the fleet.

He had spoken to Mr Albanese, Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans and Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson.

"He spoke to ministers Albanese, Ferguson and Evans and indicated that he was available to talk to the Prime Minister but recognised that it would be difficult due to CHOGM," she said.

It was reported this morning that Mr Joyce waited until five minutes before his decision to ground the fleet to hear from the Prime Minister, after attempting to call her three hours earlier.

Ms Wirth said she spoke to Ms Gillard's chief of staff Ben Hubbard to inform him what was happening, and to let him know Mr Joyce had spoken to the three senior ministers.

"And then said we're around and available. So no request," she said.