The remarkable hide of Bridget McKenzie

Bill Shorten was, for once, speechless. Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie had just accused him on live TV of being forced to update his declarations to disclose travel perks without foundation.

“Sorry Bill, if I got that wrong it’s OK, that’s fine,” McKenzie said seconds later, withdrawing the claim without hesitation.

Shadow transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Aresna Villanueva

The outgoing Labor minister didn’t respond with a zinger. After recovering from his bewilderment, Shorten went with: “I like you, Bridget.”

“I love you too,” she responded on Friday’s edition of Today. Rapprochement complete.

And with that, McKenzie, who resigned as agriculture minister in 2020 after a report found her role in the “sports rorts” saga breached ministerial standards, went on savaging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over an integrity issue.

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A woman of infinite chutzpah, McKenzie is perfectly comfortable with a “do as I say, not as I do” approach to politics.

She is auditing her own flight upgrades to find trips in plush pointy end seats that may not have been declared after lashing Albanese on Monday over his extensive acceptance of Qantas perks while insisting she’d only had one Qantas upgrade.

To show her integrity, she is name-checking her own downfall in the sports rorts saga, where colour-coded spreadsheets directed grants to seats the Coalition wanted to win and a clay target club that received a $36,000 grant turned out to count McKenzie among its members.

“I resigned from the job of my life,” McKenzie told Radio National on Friday of her response. “That had significant consequences.”

Other MPs would’ve ditched a grilling this week and gone into witness protection, sat down for a chat with a friendly media outlet or stuck to interviews in obscure locations lacking political reporters. Not McKenzie. From the ABC to commercial media, she was everywhere.

Sometimes it backfires. When the Coalition’s leadership decided McKenzie’s call to consider breaking up Qantas went too far in September, she fronted a press conference in Parliament House and tried to brazen it out. “In my opinion piece in the AFR that I hope you have all read, I explicitly rule out needing to break up Jetstar and Qantas,” she said. It was an odd statement. The piece was headlined “Is it time to force Qantas to break up with Jetstar?”

But sometimes it works. Albanese has been under pressure all week. McKenzie looks like a hypocrite, but her rhino hide has copped worse. Dutton is standing by her. So, it seems, is Shorten. And hypocrisy doesn’t mean her argument is wrong.

On Today, Shorten accused Dutton of having a glass jaw. The same can’t be said of his frontbencher.

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