Adam Bandt’s business class travel a bit rich; High-flying airport boss’ alleged fling

Adam Bandt in the Qantas Business Class next to arch enemy and Senator, Jacqui Lambie.

Bit off-brand to see Greens leader Adam Bandt flying in luxury in the business class section of QF1280. This was on Sunday during the one-hour journey between Melbourne and Canberra ahead of a parliamentary sitting week.

No such comfort for Labor ministers Tim Watts and Catherine King, spotted as they were further back cheek-by-jowl in economy.

Bandt’s colleagues probably wouldn’t approve of this indulgence. After all, it was Queensland Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather who spurned a Chairman’s Lounge membership last year and still refuses to travel business class. He says it’s because he “already spend(s) too much time with politicians in parliament”.

Bandt can do what he wants, of course. But isn’t this Mr Eat the Rich? Isn’t he the guy who routinely rails against wealth in all its forms, even announcing a series of “Robin Hood” tax hikes on profit and productivity a week ago?

“The aim is simple,” he said. “To make the big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax to make life better for everyone.”

Well, yes, life’s definitely better in a leather seat with a premium snack. But did taxpayers foot the bill? Bandt ignored Margin Call’s question asking if he paid for the ticket himself, which, if he didn’t, does put him at risk of resembling an enormous hypocrite.

The only poetic justice here, if at all, is that Bandt ended up seated next to Senator Jacqui Lambie, who’s been torching the Greens with great relish and vigour for months, attacking them for “whipping up division and hate”, displaying “the most despicable examples of leadership”, and for refusing to support her motion to condemn the vandalism of war memorials.

So hardly the comfortable flight he was probably hoping for.

High-flying airport boss’ alleged fling

The open secret raging for months inside the Australian Airports Association has been of a rumoured relationship between a board member and a female ­employee.

Now, with a formal complaint lodged last week, the board has rushed in external investigators to examine the conduct of AAA director Matt Cocker, whose day job includes running Hobart Airport as its chief operating ­officer.

Haven’t heard of AAA? It’s a decades-old airport lobby group led by the industry’s most senior executives and chaired by Adelaide Airport EGM Kym Meys. Cocker sits on the nine-member board with Sydney Airport CCO Greg Botham, Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus and Brisbane Airport CEO Gert-Jan de Graaf.

The sensitivity here is with the alleged power imbalance that could be uncovered by the investigation.

Margin Call understands that the woman concerned has left the organisation but that a Fair Work action could lob over the circumstances of her departure, along with any alleged breaches of workplace safety principles, if they are ­detected.

Cutting even deeper is the bust-up of relationships between members of the board. Some directors are alleged to have known of the supposed relationship for months in advance of the complaint but didn’t share that knowledge with their colleagues.

And that’s led to all manner of beliefs and accusations over who-knew-what-and-when and how the organisation has fumbled the handling internally.

Australian Airports Association director and Hobart Airport boss Matt Cocker. Picture: Zak Simmonds

A small reminder, too, that these people are supposed to be governance leaders in their respective corporate realms. IFM Investors, with its ownership stakes in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne airports, might wonder what role, if any, its airport executives played in this shambles.

Cocker’s lucky, in that respect; IFM doesn’t own a penny of Hobart Airport. He said: “I pride myself on acting with the highest integrity and a suggestion otherwise is categorically incorrect.”

Margin Call put this all to the AAA, a spokesman telling us: “When a concern about alleged behaviour was raised with the board of the Australian Airports Association last week, it immediately launched an external investigation. As this investigation is still under way, the AAA cannot make any further comment.”

And you know, the really shameful bit is that the AAA was once an influential organisation in Canberra. Not so now, particularly as the timing of this embarrassment coincides with a Productivity Commission review of airport regulatory standards.

The AAA would ordinarily be fortifying itself to fight off any intrusive reforms from the PC – especially when a former airline lobbyist, Dr Alison Roberts, has just been appointed a commissioner. She spent half a decade in her previous role arguing for greater airport regulation, and started at the PC in June.

But what’s the AAA doing instead? Spiralling? Nose diving? Crashing into the mountain? No shortage of aviation metaphors to choose from. They’re all accurate.

True colours

It’s been two years since Rio Tinto introduced the fabulous “Rainbow Crane” to its Pilbara fleet of heavy vehicles.

Not that we’d cast any shade on diversity and inclusion in the mining industry, but the mere fact is that ‘‘Crainbow’’, as the beast is dubbed, certainly received a mixed reception at the time of its unveiling.

Conservative thinkers let loose on social media, deeming the harmless crane too ‘woke’ for their sensibilities. Even the LGBTQIA+ activists attacked it for being a cringe-worthy example of capitalist pink-washing.

And now we hear that Perth’s mining industry is abuzz over the brightly coloured hunk of kit. Apparently it spends much of its time sitting idle in the Pilbara because blue-collar workers prefer to use almost any other colour crane.

Rio Tinto’s Rainbow Crane.

Not so, says Rio, who ran to the defence of the crainbow, insisting discrimination was not causing it to be used less; it’s just a different size. Like trucks and diggers, workers don’t get a choice on their vehicle; they’re assigned with the job.

Worth adding here that Rio has a rainbow-coloured wagon which has no trouble getting hooked into the company’s mammoth iron ore haulage system. And, frankly, given the thick coating of red dust that inevitably covers everything near an iron ore mine in the Pilbara, it seems unlikely that a crane operator could tell the difference between the rainbow-painted version and any other model.