Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Labor MPs the decision by Qantas to ground its fleet at the weekend was irresponsible.
But the government's response to the grounding and planned lock-out of airline workers showed the Fair Work Act was working, Ms Gillard told a caucus meeting in Parliament House on Tuesday.
Qantas had acted in an "extreme and irresponsible" way, she said.
The airline grounded its entire fleet at 5pm on Saturday after giving the government three hours' notice of the action.
The government intervened in the dispute between Qantas and three unions by making an application to Fair Work Australia seeking an end to industrial action.
The independent tribunal on Monday terminated industrial action and ordered the warring parties to enter settlement talks over a 21-day period.
Qantas resumed operations on Monday afternoon, but not before tens of thousands of its passengers were left stranded in Australia and overseas.
"The return of Qantas planes shows the Fair Work system is working," Ms Gillard said.
Meanwhile, 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 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.
"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."
Earlier Mr Abbott accused the government of ignoring national issues that might inconvenience the public, like the Qantas dispute.
"The government's modus operandi is that it ignores warnings, it does nothing and then it stuffs things up," he told a coalition joint parties meeting at Parliament House.
"The prime minister lacks judgement and lacks any agenda except that foisted on her by the Greens."
Mr Abbott said the government would be "dogged to its grave" by its "incompetence and untrustworthiness" on issues such as the carbon tax, border protection, the mining tax and poker machine gambling reform.
He also told MPs the coalition was "in a high state of readiness" to fight from strong policy foundations as soon as the next federal election was called.
"What you stand for in one election is what you stand for in subsequent elections," Mr Abbott said.
