James Campbell: Teals campaign loudly on transparency but have lost their voice on Qantas perks

One of the most underestimated pleasures in this life is to observe behaviour which confirms one’s prejudices about people — the silence of the Teals over the Qantas perks scandal is golden indeed.

One of the most underestimated pleasures in this life is to observe behaviour which confirms one’s prejudices about people.

Which is why for those us, who, from the get-go, have seen the Teals as little more than useful Labor stooges, their silence over the Qantas upgrades scandal has been absolutely golden.

As followers of these ‘independents’ will already know, sanctimony has long been their stock in trade.

Which is why you might have expected they would be all over the allegations the Prime Minister solicited membership of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge for this son.

But even though the story has been raging for more than week, until Monday the response of the Teals had been extremely muted indeed.

Teal MPs Kylea Tink, Zali Steggall, Kate Chaney and Monique Ryan. Picture: Martin Ollman

Last week the Herald Sun’s Clare Armstrong put a bunch of questions about specific airline perks to Teals Kate Chaney, Sophie Scamps, Allegra Spender, Zali Steggall and Kylea Tink, and Victoria’s Zoe Daniel and Monique Ryan.

As she reported the party “who campaigned strongly on transparency and integrity issues” in 2022 “opted not to weigh in when asked if politicians should decline membership” of the 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.”

That they had little to say about this matter shouldn’t surprise as before Monday the only one of them I can find to have criticised Albo for upgrades was Spender who last week tweeted Labor was not serious about airline competition and the PM’s “upgrades and cosy relations with Alan Joyce create a perception of conflict (whether they influence him or not)”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in hot water over his relationship with Qantas. Picture: Martin Ollman

Mr Albanese reportedly asked for a Qantas Chairman’s Lounge membership for his son. Picture: Supplied

As late as yesterday her position – as put to Armstrong – was 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”.

But by lunchtime on Monday that had evolved.

Announcing she was quitting the Chairman’s Lounge and its Virgin equivalent, Spender said it was time to end the upgrades as “Special treatment of politicians by Qantas and Virgin has undermined public trust in government and effective competition in the aviation industry”.

There followed more about “all sides of politics enjoy the perks” and “both the Labor and the Liberal parties have blocked greater competition by Qatar Airways”.

Would you be shocked if I told you there wasn’t a single criticism in her release that was specific to the Prime Minister’s behaviour?

I didn’t think so.

Nor it should be said would the abolition of free upgrades really that much of an inconvenience for our politicians.

Last week Albo attacked Paul Fletcher for receiving 79 upgrades over the course of his career but the reason he’s copped so many is because he’s one of the few in parliament who invariably books economy rather than business on domestic flights.

The rest of them are most of the time snuggly ensconced up the front of the plane at our expense even on short flights like Melbourne and Sydney to Canberra.

James Campbell is a Herald Sun columnist