Labor Ministers becoming a bigger laughing stock over Qantas preferential treatment
Another genius column from the Fin Review's Joe Aston - on Qantas corrupting Therapeutic AlbaneseThursday, 03 August 2023
The recent decision by the Albanese government to block Qatar Airways from launching 28 new flights per week between Doha and Australia has caused quiet amazement in the corridors of Parliament House.
Transport Minister Catherine King’s clarification last week elevated the matter to high farce. She insisted the decision was not related to a human rights incident at Doha Airport in 2020 and instead linked it to her desire “to decarbonise the transport sector”. That was such an arrant non sequitur that the only rational response was laughter.
The dazzling irony is that King offered this implausible explanation for yet another government measure fortifying Qantas’ market power as she stood in London touring Britain’s high-speed rail lines – a mode of travel Qantas’ lobbying machine has successfully obstructed in Australia for at least the past 30 years.
It is genuinely difficult to fathom the hold Qantas seems to have over this government. Air fares are at record highs (and a key factor in high inflation) while customer service levels are recovering from record lows.
In the year to June 30, 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Competition received more complaints about Qantas than any other company – the airline blamed COVID-19 disruption but claimed “things have improved and we are getting Qantas back to its best”.
Breaking news: the ACCC told this column on Wednesday that Qantas remained the most complained about company in Australia in the year to June 30, 2023!
And yet King forced the ACCC to discontinue its airline monitoring program in June by refusing to extend its funding. It’s scandalous, but it’s only in keeping with the long tradition of every Australian government indulging Qantas to an immoderate extent. If there’s any evidence to the contrary, please show it to me.
To be understood, all of this must be viewed through the lens of Anthony Albanese’s incredibly tight relationship with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, a bond that jars so badly with Albo’s misty-eyed working-class origin story.
What Australian company has in recent years done more to bleed mug punters and even its own workers? Qantas illegally sacked 1700 baggage handlers in November 2020 (all while sucking back $2.7 billion of non-recourse government COVID-19 subsidies). An appeal was heard in May by the High Court, where every presiding justice is a member of the Chairman’s Lounge.
Tinpot republics
Speaking of the Chairman’s Lounge, which comfortably generates the highest return on invested capital in the entire Qantas Group, you would not believe who has earned himself access to the pleasures hidden behind its discreet entrance. None other than the prime minister’s 23-year-old son, Nathan Albanese. It’s the stuff tinpot African republics are made of.
Everyone knows Joyce personally curates the Chairman’s Lounge membership list. Did Qantas offer this extravagant benefit to Albanese or did Albanese request it for his son? When asked this week, neither the airline nor the Prime Minister’s Office would explain. But did any of them really think a university student sweeping into the Chairman’s Lounge like a lord wouldn’t stand out like dog’s balls?
Albanese has never disclosed Nathan’s membership in his statement of registrable interests with the parliament. The PM might argue it’s not required if his son is not technically a dependent (although the Labor leader did say in 2022 that “We’re close, we live together”).
Irrespective of the sophistry relied upon, his son has received this benefit only because of his father’s position. It should be declared, especially by the guy who was elected on an integrity platform. Ask yourself: would Ben Chifley have done this?
Otherwise, where does it end? Should young Nathan get an unlimited balance in his SportsBet account or perhaps a discount from Meriton on his first apartment, all beyond our line of sight?
I have sympathy for Nathan. This is not even about him. This is about the prime minister’s inability to resist a secret freebie, a sly gratuity of public office, or to grasp how compromised he looks.
Albanese was regulating Qantas as transport minister for six years in the Rudd and Gillard governments. What other favours might Qantas have done him (or those close to him) that he felt were unnecessary to declare?
