‘Special treatment’: Qantas saga haunts Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese has conceded that he doesn’t know if his taxpayer-funded staff sought flight upgrades for private family holidays as calls mount for an overhaul of politican’s perks.

The Prime Minister’s media unit has refused to answer written questions for days from news.com.au over whether Mr Albanese’s claim that he didn’t contact “anyone” at Qantas over upgrades extends to staff contacting the airline on his behalf.

But after days of stonewalling, he was confronted with the same question on ABC radio this morning and Mr Albanese conceded he didn’t have a clear answer.

“Did anyone in your office, not you personally, ever inquire about an upgrade for yourself with Qantas?,’’ he was asked.

“We have a situation whereby politicians across the board got upgrades that was because of the way that the system works,’’ he claimed.

“It’s a simple question to you, did anyone in your office, not you necessarily…,’’ host Sabra Lane then asked.

“Not to my knowledge, no,’’ he replied.

“The only discussions …I’ve been upfront about this, everything has been declared and I’ve had no upgrades as Prime Minister. But one a year around for every year that I’ve been in office, and that is less than many of my parliamentary colleagues.

Teal independent Allegra Spender says upgrades must end

Amid claims the Teals have been silent on the issue, the member for Wentworth Allegra Spender has now called for action on politicians perks.

“Special treatment of politicians by Qantas and Virgin has undermined public trust in government and effective competition in the aviation industry,’’ she said.

“All sides of politics enjoy the perks and both major parties have failed to bring increased competition and lower fares to Australian travellers.”

“Both the Labor and the Liberal parties have blocked greater competition by Qatar Airways.”

“I will be writing to Qantas and Virgin asking them not to give free upgrades to any MPs or Senators.”

“I am also cancelling my Qantas and Virgin VIP Lounge memberships, which I was given when I entered parliament.”

“Parliamentarians should not be taking free upgrades from Qantas or Virgin.”

“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.”

Ms Spender said she was also calling for greater transparency.

“I’ve been calling for a review of the Ministerial Code of Conduct since last week.”

“We need tighter rules about what politicians can accept and we need to extend the code to Shadow Ministers – as well as provide much more transparency over Ministers’ diaries.”

It emerged last week that Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie has failed to declare some upgrades and that a Labor minister Jason Clare had personally sought a flight upgrade for a private holiday from a government relations executive at Qantas.

At the time, government relations was run by Andew Parker, who is the same man it was reported helped organise upgrades for Mr Albanese.

National leader calls for perks crackdown

Meanwhile, Nationals leader David Littleproud has backed an overhaul of rules insisting punters should “in the same pot as the punter”.

“I just don’t think it’s necessary for politicians to be able to have a line to ring up and get an upgrade on their personal flights,” he told Sky News.

“That’s not what the average punter can do.

“I think we should be in the same pot as the punter. You go into a pool and if you’re lucky enough to get one, you get one. If you don’t, well that’s based on equality and first in best dressed or whatever the policy is of the airline of the day.”

How the system works

Last week, news.com.au reported on the Chairman’s Lounge perk that not even all members of the invitation-only club enjoy.

While humble mortals need to use their frequent flyer points to upgrade their flights, current and former Qantas insiders have revealed that’s not the case with favoured politicians.

Qantas executives call it “reputational management”. Another word might be soft diplomacy because it’s clear Qantas didn’t dish out the flying favours to everyone.

It’s also provided a neat “fix” after former Labor Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner abolished the accrual of Qantas frequent flyer points for politicians for taxpayer-funded flights in 2009.

Qantas decided to simply offer upgrades to favoured politicians for free. And that’s how Anthony Albanese lived the high life when travelling overseas ever since.

And under the current disclosure arrangements, that doesn’t break any rules because he simply declared the upgrade without having to say how much it is worth.

On some estimates, the flight upgrades are estimated to amount to a six-figure sum over the course of his career.

It’s also worth remembering that all MPs and ministers are authorised to fly business class domestically. So, when you see a politician has received an upgrade for international travel unless it’s for first class on a work trip, it’s generally an upgrade freebie for a private holiday.

VIPs offered flight upgrades without using frequent flyer points

The special deal was offered to politicians and key stakeholders. In other words, anyone that Qantas thought was important enough to enjoy freebie upgrades that on some international flights could be worth $10,000 if you actually paid for the upgrade.

There were two ways that it worked. First, according to senior Qantas staff, if you are a Platinum One or Chairman’s Club member when you made an economy booking you were often automatically put on a waitlist for an upgrade.

How it worked for international flights was as follows. When then-Transport Minister Anthony Albanese booked a private holiday he was red-flagged on the system and offered an upgrade.

“So there’s no request. There would be times when someone on the Chairman’s team would say, ‘I’ve got a VIP, let’s get them an upgrade’,” a Qantas insider explained.

“Or there are times when we spot someone important flying and someone says ‘Let’s give them a good experience’.”

Prime Minister ‘good mates’ with Qantas CEO and government relations boss Andrew Parker

This is where someone like former Qantas government relations executive Andrew Parker was likely to step in. As a direct report to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, he was authorised to grant space available upgrades allowing MPs to move from an economy flight to business.

A guaranteed flight upgrade could only be granted by Mr Joyce and he hasn’t revealed if he was in the habit of doing that for Mr Albanese and his family when they knew he was flying.

“But the idea of someone calling up the CEO directly and asking for an upgrade, that isn’t happening,” a Qantas insider said.

Instead, the reality was far more subtle.

As the Transport Minister, Mr Albanese would have understood how the system worked.

If he booked an economy flight overseas he would likely be granted an upgrade. This is a lesson he learned as far back as 20 years ago.

How the Chairman’s Lounge hotline works

Former Labor staffers have told news.com.au that it was not uncommon to secure flight upgrades from Qantas for MPs by calling someone in Qantas’ “government relations” division.

“Generally how it works is you book economy and then you call up Alan Joyce or (Qantas) government relations and they then process what is a space available upgrade,” a former staffer said.

Other Labor staffers suggested there was a designated line for Chairman’s Lounge members where Qantas would bend over backwards to deliver magical upgrade outcomes.

In Joe Aston’s book he also refers to the “space available” upgrades.

“While other Qantas executives could authorise ‘space available’ upgrades in flight bookings, meaning an upgrade would occur only if there was an empty business or first class seat after check-in had closed, only Joyce could issue ‘confirmed’ or guaranteed upgrades, the kind that Albanese was treated to,” he writes.

“None of this made Albanese Robinson Crusoe in the parliament – far from it – but neither did that make it right.

“In all of these cases, Albanese was either transport minister or shadow transport minister, so he was accepting gifts cumulatively worth tens of thousands of dollars from one of the largest and most important stakeholders in his area of policy responsibility, creating at the very least a perceived conflict of interest regarding the independence of his decision-making. Yet nobody batted an eyelid.

“That was the most disturbing part – that it was utterly common practice in Australian politics.”

Former Qantas executive David Epstein works in Anthony Albanese’s office

During these years he also enjoyed a close working relationship with Qantas’ former communications supremo David Epstein who had worked for Kevin Rudd and government relations executive Andrew Parker, who was well-known for organising flight upgrades for politicians and their staff.

Indeed, at least one former Labor staffer has told news.com.au that when staff wanted to upgrade they could call Mr Albanese’s office when he was Transport minister and it would be sorted out for the right person.

Peter Dutton on the warpath

Peter Dutton has ratcheted up the pressure over the Prime Minister’s Qantas upgrade drama urging him to refer himself to the national anti-corruption watchdog.

The Liberal leader urged Mr Albanese to “get his story straight” after he repeatedly refused to go into detail over whether he had personally requested flight upgrades for private holidays.

“I think the Prime Minister should take the initiative to refer this matter to the integrity commission because I think there are many questions about Mr Albanese’s credibility and his integrity in relation to the Qatar (Airways) decision,” Mr Dutton said.

“He’s not coherent. His story keeps changing. Australians are now starting to question the integrity and the truthfulness of their Prime Minister.”