We are living in an age of self-entitlement. Former AFR columnist Joe Aston’s ‘story about power in the shadows’ has exposed the tip of the iceberg of self-entitlement culture in Australia, with our politicians leading the charge. At the centre of the saga is the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge, an invite-only airport lounge where many of our politicians are members. (There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Qantas or its employees.)
Airport lounges are excluded from Fringe Benefits Tax legislation, and the Chairman’s Lounge is an elite perk that most Australians will never get to experience. Flight upgrades that are gifted to politicians, under current rules, are not an issue if these are declared. But soliciting for benefits such as upgrades for private travel is clearly in breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct established by the Prime Minister in 2022.
Mr Albanese was elected on a promise to return a sense of integrity in politics. Central to this promise, the Ministerial Code of Conduct he established states that:
Ministers must not seek or accept any kind of benefit or other valuable consideration either for themselves or for others in connection with performing or not performing any element of their official duties as a Minister.
Mr Albanese has since denied allegations of soliciting some 22 flight upgrades from Qantas. Such actions would likely have breached Section 3.18 of the Code which reads:
Ministers … must not seek or encourage any form of gift in their personal capacity.
Aston’s book The Chairman’s Lounge ‘revealed’ Prime Minister Albanese’s close relationship with former Qantas chief, Alan Joyce. The allegations of soliciting benefits were eventually denied by the Prime Minister but the situation has since deteriorated into a tit-for-tat mess with shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie checking her declarations of flight upgrades while Labor focuses on Mr Dutton’s use of Ms Rinehart’s private jet to attend a Bali bombing memorial service.
The opposition has hit back and is considering calling Mr Joyce before an inquiry amid renewed claims that the Prime Minister’s relationship with Mr Joyce may have influenced his government’s decision to block Qatar Airways’ expansion in Australia.
The exposé of the mock ‘officially opened’ by Mr Albanese plaque at the home of Qantas executive Andrew Parker has only muddied the waters further. (This is not to suggest any wrongdoing on Mr Parker’s part.)
Mr Dutton previously called for Mr Albanese to refer himself to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for his alleged solicitation of flight upgrades. Such an action is not without precedent. Former NSW Premier Nick Greiner referred himself to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1992 over the appointment of former Liberal MLA Terry Metherell to a senior executive position in the Environmental Protection Authority. Of course, it didn’t end well for Greiner.
The efficacy of corruption watchdogs in Australia has been limited. Ironically, Greiner, the NSW Premier who established the commission, became ICAC’s first premieral casualty in 1992. Barry O’Farrell followed in 2014, and Gladys Berejiklian in 2021. No criminal charges were laid against the three premiers and a court overturned the findings against Greiner soon after. But the damage had been done.
Thankfully, and unlike ICAC, the NACC holds public hearings only in exceptional circumstances, making the process less likely to upend the presumption of innocence (in the public eye, at least).
The establishment of anti-corruption watchdogs in Australia is, in my opinion, a bureaucratic attempt to restore public faith in institutions that do not respect the results of elections. If you break the law, you break the law, no matter others’ opinions on the matter. The biggest problem with anti-corruption commissions is that they rely on the assumption that their unelected members are beyond reproach.
Regrettably, as the details of Albo’s flight upgrades saga unfold, it appears that some members of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) have also been granted membership to the exclusive Chairman’s Club. It would appear unlikely that any member of the NACC could ever be at arm’s length from any investigation regarding Qantas.
Yet the NACC is not without bipartisan support. Mr Dutton has supported the NACC commissioner, Paul Brereton, who has been found by the NACC Inspector of ‘mistaken misconduct’ in relation to a Robodebt investigation.
Further, Queensland LNP senator, Matt Canavan, has defended the NACC commissioners who have accepted Chairman’s Lounge invitations, stating that their membership would not impact their ability to make appropriate decisions.
Speaking on the Kenny Report, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor was a rare voice of reason. He pointed to the irony of the whole saga that is focused on politicians while many Australians struggle to afford medical care. Of the Prime Minister, Taylor stated:
…rather than wanting to upgrade the standard of living of Australians, [the Prime Minister] just wants to upgrade his flights.
Indeed.
Aston’s journalism has been the catalyst for Albo’s present woes, with the Prime Minister’s claims Aston did not declare his previous relationships refuted in the first line of the book. In the meantime, Labor’s counter claims about Dutton’s use of Ms Rinehart’s private aircraft, albeit for work and not for personal travel, are at odds with the allegations of private benefit against Albanese.
While the Prime Minister may be under pressure, it is difficult to single out alleged ministerial misconduct when dozens of other politicians on all sides have received upgrades while some 90 per cent of politicians and even the corruption watchdog members are enjoying the benefits of the Chairman’s Lounge.
It all comes down to the allegations of Albo soliciting for upgrades for private travel, which he has since denied.
Only at an election, the official court of public opinion, can we judge a politician for being more interested in themselves than the public interest. This is the way it should be, but is it good enough?
Voters share some of the blame.
Elections in Victoria and the ACT demonstrate that huge government debt doesn’t mean anything to voters. It is regarded as somebody else’s debt. If the public purse continues to be viewed as a magic pudding, the cycle of decline will continue.
The icing on the cake was former Queensland premier Steven Miles offering the proverbial free lunch during his election campaign. Former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet made a similarly bizarre offer of a ‘future fund’ for children at the previous NSW election.
Thankfully, voters drew a line at such trickery.
Whether the earnest Queensland premier-elect, David Crisafulli, can survive an electorate divided between those who on one hand support free lunches while on the other want the government to be tougher on youth crime remains to be seen.
Unfortunately, the fate of a similarly earnest political leader, Tony Abbott, does not bode well for those who rock the trough. Mr Abbott stated that he and his wife refused an upgrade on his personal trip to Paris during his tenure as Prime Minister. He also banned taxpayer-funded first-class overseas travel. To be sure, such humility is rare in politics.
As much as the Albanese government might be on the nose, the current revelations about politicians’ flight upgrades and Chairman’s Lounge memberships speak volumes about the state of our society. While I believe that voters are always right, I also believe we get the governments we deserve.
Which means that until we end this era of self-entitlement, we only have ourselves to blame.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is a political scientist and political commentator. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILTA), and a Member of the Royal Society of NSW. He is National Vice President of the Telecommunications Association, Chairman of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter of CILTA, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and was appointed to the College of Experts at the Australian Research Council in 2022. All opinions in this article are the author’s own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other person or organisation.
