‘Ask Albo’: Frontbencher’s perk admission

A Labor frontbencher said he would “would have to check” when asked a major question on Sunrise about Anthony Albanese’s Qantas drama.

Labor frontbencher Jason Clare has conceded on Sunrise that he doesn’t know if the Prime Minister ever asked Labor staffers to organise flight upgrades for his private holidays, urging Sunrise host Natalie Barr “ask Albo.”

After a week of the Prime Minister being under fire over Qantas flight upgrades, Anthony Albanese emerged mid-week with a statement insisting he never spoke to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce directly for a flight upgrade.

It follows claims in a new book The Chairman’s Lounge that Mr Albanese had a hotline to the CEO and dealt with him directly regarding personal travel - a claim the Prime Minister categorically rejects.

Since that statement, Mr Albanese has not held a press conference.

That then led to questions over whether he spoke to former government relations supremo Andrew Parker or other Qantas executives or whether his own Labor staffers helped organise upgrades from economy to business airfares for international holidays.

“We’ve now also got Qantas insiders who say it’s not just your ministers, like people like you who pick up the phone, it’s your office staff. Does that happen?,’’ Sunrise host Barr asked.

Deputy Opposition leader Sussan Ley and Education minister Jason Clare discuss the travel perks scandal with Sunrise’s Nat Barr. Picture: Seven

“Well, maybe it does, I don’t know,’’ Labor frontbencher Jason Clare responded.

“I’d have to check my records for upgrades in the last 10 years. But the bottom line is where it happens, declare it, fill out a form, make sure that the whole world can see about it. Don’t lie about it. That’s what’s happened here.”

Barr then noted the Prime Minister has not discussed whether his staff have picked up the phone and asked for upgrades.

“What about his staff?,’’ she asked.

“You have to ask Albo, right,’’ Mr Clare said.

news.com.au contacted the Prime Minister’s office to check if his staff had ever organised flight upgrades and received no reply.

The Prime Minister has now categorically denied that he ever personally contacted the Qantas CEO Alan Joye to solicit flight upgrades and says a search of his text messages confirms this.

It follows revelations he received 22 flight upgrades since 2009, with nearly half involving private family holidays.

The Prime Minister has insisted that in a carefully worded statement that the five day delay in arriving at that position reflected the time it took to search emails, texts and speak to former staff.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Alan Joyce. Picture: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

But in explosive new claims, a Qantas whistleblower said that people were “freaking out” over the Prime Minister’s blanket denials insisting that there were contacts between his office and the airline over upgrades in previous years.

“I know because I know. It’s bulls**t. It did happen,’’ the Qantas insider said.

“We all knew about it. It’s very well known inside Qantas. (Former government relations executive) Andrew Parker used to get calls from Labor staffers as well about upgrades.

“If there’s senate inquiry and Alan Joyce goes he’s going to get asked.”

Asked if Mr Albanese’s executive assistants or staff had ever been in contact over upgrades, a spokesperson for the PM said the Liberal Party was getting desperate.

“Bookings were made in a normal way across Qantas booking systems and yes they would have been made by different people over a period of nearly three decades,’’ the spokesperson said.

“Any upgrade issued by Qantas has been declared. The same cannot be said for the Opposition.”

PM’s ‘massive sook up’

Earlier, Health Minister Mark Butler has said the “last thing” he’d call Mr Albanese is a “sook”, after media reports that a Labor minister claimed the PM was having a “massive sook-up” over media coverage of his Qantas flights upgrade controversy.

The leak, which was published by the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday, followed a meeting of the Labor ministry in Melbourne.

The drama surrounding the PM’s perks continues. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

“As someone who’s known Anthony for a very long time and worked closely with him, the last thing I’d call him is a sook,” Mr Butler told ABC radio.

“You can’t be sook and get to the prime ministership of the country, or, frankly, to the position of leader or the opposition. These are tough jobs, and they require someone with a real sense of purpose and real resilience and strength, and that’s the Anthony Albanese I know.”

“He’s been in parliament for 30 years, he had his office assiduously go through his records so that he could be completely confident to the Australian people in saying what he said, did not make any contact with Alan Joyce, which was the allegation for upgrades.”

“Of course it worries me when people leak, but that’s been a part of politics on both sides of the political divide for as long as I’ve been involved in it. Every now and then someone shows a bit of ill discipline, but I’m not, I’m not going to pay much attention to it,” he said.