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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has flatly denied soliciting free flight upgrades from Qantas.
In a text message exchange with Sydney radio station 2GB, as reported by The Australian, the Prime Minister’s office said he never asked then-Qantas CEO Alan Joyce or anyone else at the airline for a free upgrade, following revelations he had accepted a number of upgrades since 2009.
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“Did you ever text Alan Joyce about flight upgrades – the PM’s answer? No. Did you ever email Alan Joyce about flight upgrades? The PM’s answer again? No,” the radio station reported.
“Did you ever share with Alan Joyce any flights or travel plans without specifically asking for an upgrade? The PM replied, No. Was there someone else at Qantas you were seeking upgrades from or sharing your travel plans with? Again, the PM replied, No.
“Anthony Albanese says he’d just booked the economy flights and got an upgrade to the front of the plane, and he wasn’t asking for anything. That’s what he’s told us.”
The controversy follows revelations in The Chairman’s Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out, a new book by former columnist for The Australian Financial Review, Joe Aston, that the PM had accepted numerous Qantas and Emirates flight upgrades to destinations including Dubai, London and Hawaii between 2009 and 2019, including during his tenure as transport minister between 2010 and 2013.
According to 2GB, Prime Minister Albanese said it had taken “a number of days” to thoroughly examine his records on the matter.
“The PM says he didn’t want to come out earlier in the week and issue a complete denial in case he’d missed something. That’s why he ordered an internal audit of his records,” the station said.
“The PM tells 2GB Breakfast and I quote, ‘Over 30 years there could have been a mistake but we’ve gone through the records and there are none’.
“He says, why would you call the CEO of Qantas to discuss your flights anyway?”
In previous remarks, the PM has insisted the upgrades were appropriately declared per ministerial policy.
“From time to time, members of parliament receive upgrades, what’s important is that they are declared. All of mine have been declared,” he said on Sunday.
“I note that a range of them go back a long, a long period of time. They’ve all been declared as appropriate.”
According to the Prime Minister, several of the flights in question were non-commercial.
“There were 10 [commercial] flights that were referred to, which was during the leadership campaign that I had with Bill Shorten, where both Qantas and Virgin upgraded myself and people who were travelling as part of that,” he said.
“Those flights were paid for by the Australian Labor Party to make sure that taxpayers weren’t making payments.”
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says:I wonder if the commercial airline industry have a policy to ‘tag’ certain people so that any booking flags them for an upgrade due to their ‘public profile status’. May be a question to to put to the airlines?