It’s another day, another crisis for the PR team of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as our nation’s leader has found himself under fire over his relationship with Qantas, and the amount of freebies he’s nabbed from the airline over the years.
After controversially purchasing a $4.3 million Central Coast home landed him with accusations of being “tone deaf” from punters and political opponents, the PM is again being called to question over some of the more lavish parts of his life.
As revealed by AFR journalist Joe Aston in his new book The Chairman’s Lounge, Albanese and his family copped some cheeky upgrades from Qantas over his time as Transportation Minister and Opposition Leader (between 2007 and 2019).
Over more than 10 years, it was found that Albanese had used his relationship with former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce to secure free upgrades to business and first-class flights on at least 22 occasions.
“According to Qantas insiders, Albanese would liaise with Joyce directly about his personal travel,” Aston wrote.
James D. Morgan/Getty)
So what’s the issue here? How has Albanese defended these free upgrades, and what are his critics saying about them? Let’s dive into it.
Anthony Albanese defends Qantas upgrades
Albanese has defended these upgrades by stating they were all “declared as appropriate” — but that hasn’t stopped him from landing plenty of criticism over the revelation.
“From time to time, members of parliament receive upgrades. What’s important is that they are declared. All of mine have been declared,” the PM told the press.
“I note that a range of them go back a long, a long period of time and that they have all been declared as appropriate.”
When receiving any sort of expensive gift, Aussie politicians must declare it within 28 days. Naturally, all politicians receive all sorts of gifts with widely differing values, and the monetary total of Albanese’s flight upgrades is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
However, because politics is inherently a game, when an opponent declares a gift that could be deemed as a bit much, it becomes prime material for political shit-kicking.
Anthony Albanese’s Qantas upgrades don’t pass ‘pub test’
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Peter Dutton questioned the PM for receiving flight upgrades from Qantas, calling them “a bit strange.”
“I think it is a bit strange that Mr Albanese is contacting the CEO of an airline when he is the shadow minister or minister for transport,” said Dutton.
“I very strongly believe in the need for people to declare their interests, and sometimes there are oversight and human error involved, but when you’re talking about having a personal phone call to ask for an upgrade, as the transport minister or shadow transport minister, then I presume the prime minister will answer questions about that.”
Dutton is no stranger to controversial flights himself, with the Liberal leader billing taxpayers $6K earlier this year so he could fly to Gina Rinehart‘s birthday.
And though he conceded he also accepted the same form of flight upgrade that Albanese had claimed, he highlighted that he never directly contacted the airline’s CEO to get them.
Meanwhile, former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce also admitted that the fact Albo copped a flight upgrade wasn’t that controversial.
However, he also said that the PM asking Joyce (Alan, not Barnaby, no relation) for the upgrades didn’t “pass the pub test”.
“I think if every person who gets an upgrade is in trouble, then we’re going to have a lot of people in trouble … I acknowledge 100 per cent that a lot of politicians get upgrades, me included,” he said, per Seven.
“It’s whether you solicit it … especially if you ring up Alan Joyce, that’s the issue. That’s an issue that Mr Albanese has to explain.”
Far from his first Qantas-related media storm, the PM also copped heat last year when Joyce added Albanese’s son to the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
Lead Image: Getty
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