Albanese needs to take a leaf out of Howard’s playbook on Qantas upgrades

Anthony Albanese has failed to see the damage that the idea of special flight privileges for ministers who are in a position to act in Qantas’ favour – including himself – is doing to the public perception.

Anthony Albanese’s response to the Qantas upgrades scandal has been weak, slow and confused.

Anthony Albanese should take a leaf out of John Howard’s prime ministerial leadership book and act immediately on minister’s and MPs’ Qantas flight upgrades worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Just over 20 years ago the then-prime minister was faced with a damaging, populist attack from the then Labor leader, Mark Latham, over the superannuation benefits for MPs and Senators.

The unorthodox new opposition leader was making inroads into Coalition support and Howard’s personal standing in an election year using cheap but effective political calls to clamp down on what were seen as “too-generous” superannuation retirement plans.

Tapping into a popular vein of anti-politician feeling, Latham attacked the privileges of politicians and promised to review the pension and superannuation payments for federal politicians.

John Howard at a press conference on superannuation in 2004. Picture: Mark Graham

Akin to “draining the swamp” Latham’s working class approach struck a responsive public nerve and put Howard, facing an election in a few months, on the back foot.

Although the Coalition did not start the current Qantas upgrade saga, Peter Dutton has taken advantage of the Prime Minister’s own requests for upgrades and the ongoing disclosures – the latest on Sunday on Sky News by Jason Clare – to pressure the government over conflicts of interest and integrity.

Albanese’s response has been slow and garbled and not staunched the flow of distraction from voter’s core priorities and even his own “election” launch pledge of cutting repayments for university aid after the next election.

As well, the government’s attempts to muddy the waters – including from the Education Minister himself – by claiming the Opposition Leader and Coalition MPs have all been doing the same thing only confirms in the public mind that all politicians have their snouts in the trough and concedes the allegations of special favours.

In 2004 Howard’s reaction to the growing distraction over MPs’ pensions and which would disproportionately hurt the government was to take decisive action: Howard called MPs in marginal seats and asked what impact Latham’s attack was having; he held an urgent Cabinet meeting; declared he was going to change the superannuation scheme and; then fronted all Coalition MPs at a special party room meeting which went for hours.

The upshot was that Howard not only decided to change the pension plans – federal MPs’ superannuation was then at about 69 per cent rather than the community standard of nine per cent – but also to introduce the changes immediately and not until after the pending election.

There was fierce resistance to Latham’s plans with Peter Costello saying it would lower the standard of people seeking to become MPs – the superannuation scheme was seen as compensation for relatively lower parliamentarian salaries – and Tony Abbott dismissed it was “populist”.

It did not apply to sitting MPs but only for those elected at and after the 2004 election - both Dutton and Albanese were elected under the old scheme.

Howard’s public and political response after facing down a near-revolt was: “I believe in focusing very heavily on the things that are important to the Australian people”.

Howard had gone further than Latham who had only promised a review and successfully changed the superannuation laws before the election.

“I recognise that there is a community perception that the superannuation part is too generous,” Howard said.

“The most sensible thing is to recognise that, to get on with it and do something immediately, not just let it drift on for months and months,” he said as he neatly killed a distraction and growing resentment towards politicians.

For all the claims he had panicked and handed Latham a victory – and still faces arguments today the standard of people attracted into parliament has been lowered – Howard went on to win a fourth term with an increase in his vote.

Like Hannibal, who sent away troops threatening to mutiny on his march over the alps to Rome declaring he didn’t need them, Howard acted as a strong leader with a good reading of the situation.

Albanese has failed to see the damage that the idea of special flight privileges for ministers who are in a position to act in Qantas’ favour – including himself – is doing to the public perception; he’s response has been weak, slow and confused and; even as he campaigns for the start of election with Clare, he fails to see the dangerous distraction.

Having said that, it wouldn’t hurt Dutton to bring forward his own plans – as Abbott did – to restrict upgrades for ministers and MPs and follow his mentor’s example on how to deal with distractions and act as a strong leader.