Qantas upgrades: Anthony Albanese facing his (lapse in) judgment day
The Coalition is considering asking the Senate to establish a new inquiry to order former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce to explain whether Anthony Albanese solicited free upgrades.
No transport minister since Anthony Albanese has received flight upgrades from Qantas while they were in charge of the portfolio, amid revelations the Prime Minister did not disclose upgrades worth thousands of dollars gifted to his ex-wife by the airline and its partner Emirates.
The Coalition is considering asking the Senate to establish a new inquiry to order former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce to explain whether Mr Albanese solicited free upgrades, as Peter Dutton declared he was “not aware of anyone else” having spoken with Mr Joyce to receive upgrades for personal travel.
A new book, The Chairman’s Lounge, by former Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston, reveals Mr Albanese accepted free flight upgrades worth tens of thousands of dollars while he was either transport minister or shadow transport minister.
The book cites Qantas insiders who said Mr Albanese would liaise with Mr Joyce directly about his personal travel.
The Opposition Leader, Jim Chalmers and Bill Shorten all denied on Monday having reached out to an airline chief executive, as Mr Albanese is alleged to have done.
The Prime Minister has come under increased scrutiny following allegations he broke a rule requiring MPs to disclose gifts to their spouse and dependent children by failing to disclose flight upgrades for his ex-wife and former NSW deputy premier Carmel Tebbutt between 2009 and 2013.
The mismatch in Ms Tebbutt’s own declaration of interests, reported by The Australian Financial Review, discloses upgrades on Qantas and Emirates flights to Europe, Los Angeles and Honolulu on the same travel dates as Mr Albanese.
The registers of members’ interests for the parliaments that succeeded Mr Albanese’s time as transport minister between December 2007 and September 2013 reveal no other transport minister received flight upgrades while they headed the portfolio.
Current Transport Minister Catherine King has not received any upgrades since the Albanese government was elected in 2022, nor did former Coalition government ministers Darren Chester, Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack.
Mr Chester – who served as transport minister between February 2016 and December 2017 – said he had never requested upgrades from airlines during his time in the portfolio, and had never received such perks for personal travel. He did accept a $500 flight from now defunct airline Rex in December 2017 when he was still transport minister.
“All my parliamentary work travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules, and I have declared the two occasions where upgrades to a higher standard of travel have been offered by an airline,” he said.
“In my time as minister for transport, I enjoyed excellent working relationships with all Australian airline executives and did not request flight upgrades. I have continued to declare my free membership of the Virgin and Qantas lounges in accordance with the rules.
“I can’t recall any occasion in my 16 years in federal parliament where we have been offered or have requested a flight upgrade for our personal travel.”
However, Warren Truss, a former Nationals leader, deputy prime minister and infrastructure and regional development minister, stated that in May 2015, Emirates upgraded his class of travel on a flight from Munich to Dubai.
There was no dedicated transport minister during the Abbott government.
Opposition transport and infrastructure spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie said the allegations raised in Aston’s book meant the Coalition was considering asking Mr Albanese to make an explanation to parliament or attempting to get the numbers in the Senate to establish an inquiry to call Mr Joyce to give evidence about the travel arrangements.
“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 told Sky News.
The Coalition is also expected to probe the issue at Senate estimates next week.
Mr Joyce told Seven’s Sunrise program: “There’s a lot of people who just fly generally, get offered upgrades and take them. I think we all do that … The difference (is) when you solicit it, when you ring up Alan Joyce and say ‘hey, Alan, I’d like an upgrade, my name’s Anthony Albanese’. And that’s the one that doesn’t pass the pub test.”
Mr Dutton said it was a “strange arrangement” when a transport minister picked up the phone to an airline chief executive – one of the most important stakeholders in the portfolio – to ask for an upgrade.
“I’m not aware of anyone else having done it,” he said.
But government ministers defended Mr Albanese, saying he had consistently and transparently declared upgrades in his parliamentary register.
“I know from personal experience that the Prime Minister is a fundamental believer in transparency, and he has been very transparent,” NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said.
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt said Labor’s record in challenging Qantas proved flight upgrades hadn’t affected the party’s or Mr Albanese’s decisions “to always act in the national interest”.
“Anthony Albanese has on several occasions taken on Qantas. He took them on as the transport minister when they grounded their fleet and went after unions. He took them on in opposition and he took on the Coalition who refused to provide any support to Virgin when it broke at Qantas’ request,” Senator Watt told ABC TV.
“The LNP also sided with Qantas when they sacked their workforce despite receiving nearly $1bn in JobKeeper. Labor and Anthony Albanese stood against that. And even in office now we’ve introduced laws, the Same Job Same Pay laws, which Qantas opposed, and the Coalition opposed, which have seen Qantas labour hire workers receive pay rises of about $30,000.”
Mr Dutton’s register shows he has accepted a number of upgrades during his time in parliament, most recently in December when Qantas offered flight upgrades for him and his wife from Brisbane to Sydney.
Additional reporting: Robyn Ironside
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