Federal Transport Minister Catherine King has accepted a lifetime Platinum status from Qantas. This astonishingly generous perk, accrued over a quarter of a century of taxpayer-funded travel, exposes a political class fundamentally divorced from the reality of everyday Australians.
When challenged on the appalling optics of accepting such a lavish gift, the government deployed "the Anika Wells defence". Colleagues argued that because the minister declared the gift there is nothing to see here. But merely declaring an outrageous conflict of interest does not neutralise it.
