Growing calls to end Qantas perks as more MPs renounce lounge memberships
Three independent MPs have renounced their exclusive Qantas chairman’s lounge membership as Allegra Spender leads the charge calling for end of airline perks for pollies.
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Three independent MPs have dumped their Qantas and Virgin VIP lounge memberships amid a push for an end airline freebies for politicians to rebuild trust with the public.
Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, Curtin MP Kate Chaney and Indi MP Helen Haines on Monday joined the list of politicians who have renounced their access to the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, as Anthony Albanese came under pressure to say if any of his staff had ever sought flight upgrades on his behalf.
Ms Spender was the first to move in the wake of the ongoing saga and called for a total ban on free flight upgrades for politicians, arguing “special treatment” from Qantas and Virgin had “undermined public trust in government and effective competition in the aviation industry”.
She said airlines worked in a highly regulated environment subject to government policy and ministerial decisions and the public was “understandably” losing trust in politicians to make those decisions impartially “when they’re being given free upgrades from the companies they’re supposed to regulate”.
“The best way to restore public trust is to simply end the upgrades,” she said.
Ms Spencer said the upgrades debate had “shone a light on airlines, but the integrity issues are much broader”.
“I’ve been calling for a review of the Ministerial Code of Conduct since last week,” she said.
“We need tighter rules about what politicians can accept and we need to extend the code to shadow ministers – as well as provide much more transparency over Ministers’ diaries.
“This is the only way to deal with the perception – and potential reality – of decisions being influenced by perks.”
Ms Spencer said it was time all parliamentarians “took a stand to convince the Australian public that they’re not just in it for themselves and their mates”.
Prior to the recent scrutiny on politician’s perks, a number of MPs had already not accepted or cancelled their Chairman’s lounge membership.
Among those who never declared accepting the exclusive pass are Labor Senator Tony Sheldon and Greens Griffith MP Max Chandler-Mather.
While Greens members Stephen Bates, Elizabeth Watson-Brown and Barbara Pocock, independent ACT Senator David Pocock and Kooyong MP Monique Ryan have all declared cancelling their access.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister was spared a grilling in Question Time from the opposition, but was pushed in a tense interview on ABC radio to clarify his own upgrades track record.
Having ruled out soliciting past upgrades himself directly from former Qantas chief Alan Joyce, Mr Albanese was asked to confirm if his office had ever sought one on his behalf.
The PM replied: “not to my knowledge”.
Mr Albanese has declared receiving 30 flight upgrades since 1998, including several during his tenure as the minister or shadow responsible for the transport portfolio.
“Everything has been declared, and I’ve had no upgrades as Prime Minister,” he said on Monday.
Despite skipping the perks issue in parliament, the opposition has vowed to pursue whether Mr Albanese’s ties to Qantas influenced his government’s decision to block a request from Qatar Airways to run extra flights to Australia.
Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the issue was Mr Albanese’s receiving gifts from Qantas while “in a position to make decisions about the airline industry that would affect all Australians”.
Teal MPs quiet on Qantas chairman’s lounge pollie perk
It comes after independent “teal” MPs swept into parliament on wave of support for their pledge to bring transparency and integrity to politics went gone silent on pollies’ airline freebies, refusing to say if elected representatives should be forced to ditch some perks.
The Qantas upgrade saga has continued with Education Minister Jason Clare on Sunday revealing he had solicited an upgrade for flight from Sydney to Singapore for personal travel in 2019, admitting he had “probably” contacted Qantas’ government relations staff to arrange it.
“I had surgery on my leg and, yep, I asked for an upgrade,” Mr Clare told Sky News. “And I was assisted by Qantas.
“I remember picking up the phone and asking for a bit of assistance there, but I can’t remember all of the details.”
Mr Clare declared the upgrade on his interests register at the time, but it was not known he had asked for it.
The admission came after Anthony Albanese was engulfed in damaging accusations he had previously sought flight upgrades from then-Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, which the Prime Minister has since ruled out doing.
The upgrades issue has prompted calls from crossbench MPs to review the current declaration system and ministerial code, but the offices of Western Australia’s Kate Chaney, NSW’s Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall and Kylea Tink, and Victoria’s Zoe Daniel and Monique Ryan did not answer a series of questions about specific airline perks.
The MPs, who campaigned strongly on transparency and integrity issues at the 2022 election and may hold the balance of power in a future minority government, opted not to weigh in when asked if politicians should decline membership of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
Most of the independents also did not say if they believed MPs should decline all seat upgrades, or if politicians and their staff should be required to book the cheapest available suitable flight rather than stick to Qantas where they are able to collect status credits for lounge access and other perks.
Ms Daniel was open to reviewing the current rules around gifts for MPs, saying: “public trust is critically important and if the current rules aren’t enabling that trust, then we need to look at them”.
While Ms Spender said she believed it was “not appropriate” for MPs to ask for upgrades, and they should be “thoughtful” about whether it was “appropriate” to accept them, “particularly if they are close to decisions that affect the airlines directly”.
“I especially don’t think politicians should be asking for or accepting upgrades on personal flights,” she said.
Ms Spender also backed a review of the ministerial code of conduct, suggesting it apply to both ministers and shadow ministers.
Ms Tink previously said political leaders and ministers “should not request or accept gifts from the corporations they are in control of legislating over”.
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