Bridget McKenzie still discussing Senate inquiry into Qantas, Alan Joyce and his relationship with Anthony Albanese over flight upgrades

Bridget McKenzie refuses to rule out a Senate inquiry into Qantas, its former chief executive Alan Joyce and his relationship with Anthony Albanese, days after she was forced to disclose 16 of her own flight upgrades.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie is refusing to rule out a Senate inquiry into Qantas, its former chief executive Alan Joyce and his relationship with Anthony Albanese, days after she was forced to disclose 16 of her own flight upgrades and the major parties apparently called a truce on the saga.

The Nationals Senate leader was still discussing the inquiry ahead of the Senate resuming next week for the final sitting fortnight of the year.

She called for the inquiry shortly after allegations were published in Joe Aston’s new book The Chairman’s Lounge revealing the Prime Minister received free Qantas flight upgrades worth tens of thousands of dollars while he was minister and shadow minister for transport. The book cites Qantas insiders who said Mr Albanese would liaise with Mr Joyce directly about his personal travel.

Mr Albanese has denied personally soliciting an upgrade from Mr Joyce or anyone else at the airline but has been unable to say whether any member of his staff has over his nearly three decades in parliament.

“We really do need to understand the influence that the Prime Minister’s personal and financial gain through these upgrades for he and his family have had on his personal intervention in protecting Qantas from competition,” Senator McKenzie said on Sky News two weeks ago when the flight upgrades controversy first emerged.

Senate crossbenchers David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe were still interested in supporting a Senate inquiry but wanted its scope to be broader than the Albanese-Joyce issue. The Greens also remained open to the probe.

“The Greens have called for a blanket ban on MPs requesting or accepting free flight upgrades for both personal and work-related travel,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said.

“The Greens haven’t seen details of any inquiry, and at this stage it appears that the Prime Minister has answered all the questions that have been put to him, but our partyroom will consider any proposal put forward.”

Senator Pocock had seen no proposed terms of reference from the Coalition but wanted to scrutinise parliament’s “broken” lobbying laws and the “complete lack of accountability for politicians who do the wrong thing”, which could further embroil Senate McKenzie.

“For some time now he has been calling for sponsored passes to be made public so we know who has access to Parliament House and who gave it to them,” Senator Pocock’s spokeswoman said.

“He also wants to see in-house lobbyists, like for Qantas, captured on the lobbyist register and the lobbyists rules tightened, with great penalties for breaches. Likewise rules for MPs. It’s not just about declarations. Ministers and shadow ministers shouldn’t be accepting gifts from companies they regulate. And large-scale failures to comply with the rules – like we’ve seen from Senator McKenzie – should carry consequences.”

Senator McKenzie, who has been the ­Coalition’s chief attack dog against Mr Albanese over the flight upgrades saga, last week disclosed 16 previously undeclared upgrades of her own despite insisting she had never sought nor received them from Qantas.

Three of the economy to business domestic Qantas upgrades were received between October last year and August, while she was opposition transport spokeswoman.

Senate crossbenchers Gerard Rennick and Ralph Babet supported a flight upgrades Senate inquiry last week but the former described it as a “side show” on Monday and the latter said there were far too many inquiries already and the major parties needed to focus on issues that mattered to Australians.