Adam Bandt, teal and independent MPs say parliament needs to change rules allowing flight upgrades for MPs
A growing number of politicians say there’s a case for banning flight upgrades for personal travel, as MPs quit exclusive airline lounges.
A growing number of politicians say there’s a case for banning flight upgrades for personal travel – either solicited by an MP or offered by the airline – increasing pressure on Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton to look at changing the rules.
The push comes as teals MP Allegra Spender vowed to cancel her Qantas and Virgin VIP lounge memberships, as did independent MP Helen Haines, while the Prime Minister was unable to say if anyone in his office had ever inquired about a Qantas flight upgrade on his behalf.
“Not to my knowledge, no … You’re talking about a 30-year period,” he said. “I’ve been upfront about this, everything has been declared and I’ve had no upgrades as Prime Minister. But (I’ve received) one a year around about for every year that I’ve been in office, and that is less than many of my parliamentary colleagues.”
As parliament returned for the third-last sitting week of the year, the Coalition didn’t ask a single question of Mr Albanese about his flight upgrade arrangements with Qantas or former chief executive Alan Joyce despite attacking the Prime Minister for 10 days over the controversy.
The saga – sparked by allegations in former Nine columnist Joe Aston’s book The Chairman’s Lounge that Mr Albanese received flight upgrades potentially worth thousands of dollars for personal trips to Honolulu, Europe and Los Angeles – has embroiled both sides of politics, with opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie forced to audit her own flight upgrades after insisting she had never sought nor been offered one.
One upgrade has been disclosed on Senator McKenzie’s register of members’ interests but there are increasing expectations from within the Coalition and government she will need to publish more, putting her position on the frontbench under scrutiny.
Mr Albanese also accepted flight upgrades while he was either transport minister or opposition transport spokesman, but he has rejected the allegation he would liaise with Mr Joyce directly about his personal travel and he has denied personally soliciting an upgrade from anyone else at Qantas.
On Monday during Senate estimates the Coalition ramped up pressure on Mr Albanese over his involvement in blocking Qatar Airways’ application for more flights, with opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham criticising the Prime Minister’s Office for failing to adequately answer six questions on it’s communications with Qantas over the decision.
Senator Birmingham accused Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet officials of engaging in “linguistic gymnastics” to avoid answering the questions probing if Mr Albanese or his office communicated with Qantas about Qatar’s application for more slots, which the Coalition had sent to department secretary Glyn Davis last week.
The issue of whether a minister requesting an upgrade posed a breach of the code of conduct also dominated the first day of hearings, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong declaring that the “words are clear” though individuals must make their own judgment on what constitutes a gift.
Senator Wong also invoked Mr Dutton’s admission his office asked mining magnate Gina Rinehart if he could use her private jet to attend a Bali bombing memorial service.
“People have to make a judgment on what a gift is,” she said. “It might be that asking a billionaire for a ride on a private jet, is that a gift? Or is that appropriate travel?”.
Nationals leader David Littleproud told The Australian it wasn’t the “right thing” to solicit upgrades for personal travel and politicians requesting an upgrade outside of their work should be treated the same as any customer.
He didn’t believe rules needed to change. “We can over complicate things. It’s just the good old pub test, that’s what drives behaviour. The biggest accountability we’ve got is an election,” Mr Littleproud said. “We’ve got good processes in place, it’s proven the declaration system works. We should get to a juncture where for personal travel we are treated like everybody else.”
Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party was open to changing the rules so MPs couldn’t request or receive flight upgrades for personal travel, declaring there was no case “for asking for special treatment” outside of work.
His office also confirmed Mr Bandt supported looking at politicians’ access to the Chairman’s Lounge, of which the Greens leader is a member.
“We’ve always had the view that big corporations have too much power in this parliament and over politicians. If there are proposals that come out of the recent events for a review about any of those matters, then we are completely open to that,” Mr Bandt said.
Ms Spender, the member for the once blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Wentworth, said parliamentarians shouldn’t be taking free upgrades from Qantas or Virgin.
“I will be writing to Qantas and Virgin asking them not to give free upgrades to any MPs or senators,” she said.
“Airlines work in a highly regulated environment which is subject to government policy and ministerial decisions. The public is understandably losing trust in politicians to make those decisions impartially when they’re being given free upgrades from the companies they’re supposed to regulate. The best way to restore public trust is to simply end the upgrades.”
Fellow teals MP Monique Ryan, who has relinquished her Qantas Chairman’s Lounge membership, said free flight upgrades and airline hospitality were lobbying practices that had been taken for granted for a long time and needed to be re-examined.
But a ban on soliciting or receiving flight upgrades for personal travel wasn’t needed, as long as politicians made the relevant disclosures.
Access to the Chairman’s Lounge needed to be reconsidered, Ms Ryan said.
Ms Haines, who has repeatedly called for greater integrity and transparency in politics, said she had contacted Qantas and Virgin to cancel her lounge memberships to remove “any possibility of an actual or perceived conflict of interest” in her work as an MP.
“I want to see more rigorous rules around MP disclosures of upgrades and I think a ban on soliciting free flight upgrades is more than reasonable,” she added.
Nationals MP Ross Cadell said he wouldn’t mind a ban on flight upgrades, though he believed they were “fine” as long as everyone knew about them.
“I would love the airlines to have to disclose when they do it so the members and senators can’t hide,” he said.
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