Anthony Albanese has reportedly secretly met with Labor MPs to assure them he did not badger Qantas bosses for upgrades but one unimpressed attendee called the exercise a ‘massive sook up’.
Unnamed MPs reportedly told Nine newspapers that Mr Albanese said the media would soon lose interest in the alleged scandal even though they held Labor ‘to a higher standard’ on probity issues than the Coalition.
‘The same thing happened to Kevin [Rudd], the same thing to Julia [Gillard], then Bill [Shorten], now me,” one MP cites Mr Albanese as saying.
Mr Albanese reportedly reassured his troops that his office had thoroughly checked his records before releasing a Wednesday afternoon statement denying he had phoned former Qantas boss Alan Joyce to seek free upgrades on flights.
The Prime Minister also reportedly denied a story by Sky News that the upgrade requests had been aimed at former Qantas executive Andrew Parker.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher reportedly defended Mr Albanese saying any changes to bookings were made in the same way as every other member of parliament.
However, one unnamed MP told Nine Mr Albanese’s address was ‘a massive sook up’ and called it another example of the Prime Minister’s office failing to ‘immediately close down a damaging story’ and dodging questions for days.
Mr Albanese reportedly told his parliamentary colleagues expenses scandals tended to get media attention for days, with mudslinging on both sides, before dying down.
Anthony Albanese (pictured left) has assured parliamentary colleagues that he did not personally ask former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (pictured right) for updates
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and other Coalition MPs’ flights have come under scrutiny.
Mr Dutton has admitted his office asked mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s team for travel from Queensland to Sydney and back in 2022 for a Bali Bombing memorial.
Sky News host Sharri Markson on Wednesday night claimed Mr Parker, who oversaw Qantas government affairs, personally handled Mr Albanese’s flight upgrades to business class during his political career, which included being transport minister.
Mr Albanese made a series of categorical denials to Ben Fordham’s 2GB team saying he had never personally asked Mr Joyce or ‘anyone at Qantas’ for upgrades.
Doing so would potentially contravene the Ministerial Code of Conduct, which which prohibits ministers from seeking ‘any kind of benefit’.
More to come
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