How many Australian MPs would pass the pub test if voters read the list of perks they’ve received for sitting in the most powerful building in the land?
Anthony Albanese is very firmly in the public crosshairs over his relationship with Qantas – and particularly with former CEO Alan Joyce – and the free flight upgrades he has received.
As the prime minister has pointed out, he has not sought to hide those upgrades.
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He just has Joe Aston, and the former Australian Financial Review columnist’s new book on the national carrier, to thank for the sudden scrutiny.
But the prime minister is far from the only politician to benefit from the national carrier’s generosity, or to benefit from a freebie.
Parliamentary rules dictate MPs must disclose a range of interests – holdings companies, family and business trusts, the property they own, sponsored hospitality and travel, gifts worth more than $750, and “any other interests where a conflict of interest with a Member’s public duties could foreseeably arise or be seen to arise”.
The registers are updated regularly and publicly available to read.
Some are fairly innocuous.
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Nationals leader David Littleproud appears to get a Christmas ham every year from Australian Pork Limited.
Labor MP Julian Hill was gifted a “priceless” almost-metre-high statue of himself by a constituent.
But the registry also contains far more substantial disclosures.
It’s why we know that just about every MP is a member of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, as well as the Virgin equivalent.
Plenty have benefited from flight upgrades.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus disclosed a first-class upgrade from Los Angeles.
Greens leader Adam Bandt says he gets “occasional upgrades from economy to business class on Virgin and Qantas”.
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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also declared upgrades from Qantas, as well as several flights paid for by Hancock Prospecting, the company run by Australia’s wealthiest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
They aren’t the only ones.
Aston says Albanese should face scrutiny because many of the upgrades he received came when he was transport minister – and therefore responsible for regulating the aviation industry, Qantas included – and that he contacted Joyce to ask for the bump up to the pointy end of the plane.
But he says the greater issue lies in the parliamentary culture of readily accepting gifts not passing the pub test.
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“I think the response to this show is just that the public are fed up with politicians taking freebies,” Aston told Today yesterday.
“You look at the UK, you know, and the new prime minister there is in a whole world of pain over all of the tickets to concerts and sporting events that he’s had to repay.
“I mean, if Anthony Albanese had to repay all of the free tickets he’d taken as a politician, he’d have to file for personal bankruptcy.
“And look, that doesn’t make Albo Robinson Crusoe either. It’s just such a common thing.
“And I think politicians need to realise that Australians have had enough.”
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