McKenzie apologises, declares 16 free flight upgrades

Under-pressure opposition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie has apologised for failing to declare 16 flight upgrades across Australia and to New Zealand dating back years, just over a week after she claimed to have never sought or received airline perks.

The Nationals senator’s office received logs of her travel from all major airlines after she realised last week she declared an upgrade in 2018, prompting her to conduct a wider audit of her travel amid a furore over politicians’ widespread acceptance of the pricey gifts.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie is on the cusp of declaring extensive flight upgrades.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

McKenzie’s office on Wednesday declared 16 occasions on which she had been boosted from economy class to superior seats, including five Qantas upgrades on personal flights between Australia and New Zealand.

Seven of the upgrade flights were on domestic Virgin routes and McKenzie received another three Qantas flight upgrades when she was on parliamentary business, with the upgrades dating back to 2015.

Politicians of all stripes regularly receive upgrades on domestic flights and declare them. But the admission is awkward for McKenzie previously denied receiving any upgrades, and in fact received them for both work and personal travel.

McKenzie said she had never asked for free upgrades, which she said had been confirmed by the airlines.

“Deficiencies in disclosing these matters do not meet the expectations of the Australian people and the parliament and were an oversight on my part, and for this I apologise,” McKenzie said in a statement. “I have and will continue to prosecute the Albanese Labor government’s failure to ensure greater competition in the aviation sector on behalf of all Australian travellers.”

McKenzie, who released the information on the same day Australians were absorbing US election results, had been leading the opposition’s crusade against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for allegedly asking for upgrades directly from former Qantas boss Alan Joyce.

Albanese denied the claim, made in a book by journalist Joe Aston released late last month, but questions about airline perks for politicians have dominated debate for more than a week.

Two Coalition sources, speaking anonymously to be candid, said MPs were frustrated that McKenzie had led the charge against Albanese without realising the issue would backfire due to her own record, with one saying it was negligent for her to “stick her neck out”.

Labor MP Tony Sheldon said McKenzie’s disclosures showed the Coalition “always seem to slip up with the rules when they’re busy pointing fingers at everyone else.”

Earlier on Wednesday, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said McKenzie’s situation was different to the one facing Albanese.

“That’s completely different from a circumstance where the minister responsible for this area reaches out, either directly or through their office, to lobby for an upgrade for personal use,” he told ABC Radio National.

McKenzie resigned from cabinet in 2020 after the sports rorts scandal in which she was found to have breached ministerial standards by not disclosing her membership of a gun club that received government funding.

Parliamentary guidelines state that senators should declare gifts within 35 days.

Greens transport spokeswoman Elizabeth Watson-Brown on Wednesday called for a blanket ban on MPs requesting or accepting free flight upgrades, a ban that would apply to both personal and work-related travel.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.