Before we send Albanese to the ejection seat, let’s look at Dutton’s itinerary

Nothing can offend an Australian voter quite like a politician who claims to stand up for battlers while enjoying special favours from a wealthy elite. So there should be no surprise that Anthony Albanese is exposed to lasting damage from days of questions about his Qantas flight upgrades and his contact with the airline’s former boss Alan Joyce.

But there should be no shock, either, that some of the bullets fired at the prime minister have ricocheted around and hit Peter Dutton instead. That is what happened on Thursday when the opposition leader had to admit his office asked for free flights from mining billionaire Gina Rinehart and her company, Hancock Prospecting.

Illustration by Simon Letch

It is also what happened to the Coalition’s chief prosecutor against the prime minister, Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie. She said on Monday she had not received an upgrade. She confirmed later that day she had received one upgrade. Later in the week, she said she would check records to see if there were more. Australians will conclude that the politicians are all as bad as each other.

Federal politicians are trapped like a group of pampered passengers on the leather seats of an executive jet flying into a vast lake of mud. Parliament resumes on Monday with all sides expecting a blame game about who had the most egregious upgrade.

But the superficial politics are only part of this story. Yes, there is a perception problem. What matters is the deeper question about personal integrity. Did Albanese trade his integrity for a comfortable seat at the front of the plane? Should voters worry that the prime minister is corrupt?

Dutton has set this as the test. He said on Tuesday that Albanese should refer himself to the National Anti-Corruption Commission over the upgrades. That is the moment Dutton jumped the shark. Integrity experts such as Anthony Whealy, a former NSW Supreme Court judge, say it is “fanciful” to treat this as a matter for the NACC. More pointedly, barrister Geoffrey Watson says that if Dutton thinks the upgrades should go to an inquiry, he should also refer himself – because taking favours from a billionaire should qualify as well.

Before we go further, it helps to be clear on the facts. An extract of The Chairman’s Lounge by Joe Aston, published in Good Weekend on Saturday, listed 22 flight upgrades for Albanese over the period from 2009 to 2022. This is a bigger number than many, but not all, federal politicians, so the issue is not the number of flights. Everything turns on a single sentence in the book: “According to Qantas insiders, Albanese would liaise with Joyce directly about his personal travel.” Aston does not elaborate on phone calls or texts; he does not say anything further about his source.

Albanese and his office took days to respond to that claim. Only on Wednesday night did a spokeswoman issue a clear statement: “The prime minister did not ever call Alan Joyce seeking an upgrade.” Only on Thursday morning did the office confirm that this also meant no texts, no emails and no contact of other kinds to line up a benefit.

Why did Albanese take so long to be clear? Because his staff spent several days going through travel records and checking diaries, to be sure he could defend his statement in parliament. They calculated that Albanese has taken about 6000 flights since being elected to parliament in 1996. Most of us could remember if we asked for an upgrade, but we wouldn’t lose our jobs if we got the detail wrong. The prime minister cannot mislead parliament. If Albanese gets this wrong, he will be under immense pressure. If Joyce or another former Qantas executive one day reveals a text or email, the PM is gone. So the statement took time.

Airline upgrades do not set Albanese apart from others. Dutton received a Qantas upgrade last December for himself and his wife. The disclosure documents in parliament are littered with cases like this.

Take the example of former prime minister Tony Abbott. He told News Corp this week he turned down a Qantas upgrade for his family when he was prime minister. But in the three years before he led the country, from 2010 to 2013, he received several upgrades, including some for his wife. He disclosed them.

Abbott is a man of principle and conviction. The idea he would do a deal for an upgrade is laughable: when Qantas wanted a debt guarantee in 2014, Abbott turned it down. But the upgrades were and are commonplace. On flights, Albanese is being held to a standard never applied to Abbott, the last prime minister to take power from opposition.

Keep in mind that Aston is right on the big theme. “This is a story about power in the shadows,” he says. He is revealing the cosy club of politicians who enjoy the Chairman’s Lounge. Almost every federal politician is in this club.

It will infuriate some Australians to see their politicians gain benefits others are denied. But most politicians work long hours, with significant stress, and suffer real pressure on their families. The lounge is hardly a luxury retreat: after all, it is in an airport terminal.

Here is the essential question: where is the quid pro quo? Albanese opposed Qantas when it grounded its fleet during an industrial dispute in 2011, sacked 1700 workers during the pandemic and hired contractors to replace employees. Where is the evidence he went soft on Qantas because of flight upgrades?

Albanese is also defending the “same job same pay” legislation that requires Qantas to treat workers as employees rather than contractors. This costs the airline money, so it wants it repealed. Dutton says he will repeal it. This is the most glaring evidence that Albanese has not traded his integrity for a cushy seat at the front of the plane.

Now consider the way Qantas has been shielded from competition. The Coalition took years in government to decide whether Qatar Airways should gain more flights to and from Australia, before allowing seven more flights. Once in government, Labor rejected a Qatar request for more flights. It favoured Turkish Airlines instead, with about 28 more flights.

The obvious fact is that both sides help Qantas at times. The airline was a big recipient of JobKeeper money when the Coalition held power during the pandemic. The Coalition also turned down a plea from Virgin Australia for a bailout in 2020 – in other words, it sided with Qantas. On that question, Albanese backed Virgin.

A little sunlight on the Chairman’s Lounge is no bad thing. But this is not really about an airline club. It is about personal integrity and trust – for Dutton, just as much as Albanese. The prime minister denies asking the Qantas boss for a favour. The opposition leader admits his office asked a mining boss for a favour.

That means Dutton has questions to answer. What does Rinehart expect in return for helping the opposition leader? When politicians attack each other, the questions do not fly one way.

David Crowe is chief political correspondent.