Backtracking Coalition hits turbulence in attack on PM over free flight upgrades

What started this was Albo allegedly asking for upgrades for personal flights and even Chairman membership for his son. Thats where the smell is. The fact that every Federal politician is offered membership across the board means it isn’t a bad thing to accept membership if it is disclosed. Just don’t ask for upgrades or your family to benefit. Politicians would fly more than the average person so having access to a lounge is hardly excessive. Every Public Servant flying more than 3 hours is entitled to Business Class airfares and the accompanying lounge access.

Gotta love how pollies can misuse public monies and get a slap on the wrist, however if you were an APS Employee (APS or EL), you’d already be out of a job and likely heading to court to get yourself a criminal record. .

I’ve mentioned this in other forums, but to be clear not many pollies outside of backbenchers and the crossbenchers would have any clue what upgrades they’d received. Ministers and shadows will generally have a staff member acting as the travel coordinator with another staffer allocated to assist. When there’s international involved it can get a bit hectic as Departments will often provide dedicated phones and devices for use by ministers and some staff, but most of that work is done by the agency staff providing the services.
Qantas and Virgin have parliamentary liaison or dedicated Chairman’s Lounge staff for MPs and Senators to contact should the need arise, but most upgrades are performed in the cabin of the plane or at the boarding gate. All cabin crew are expected to familiarise themselves with the manifest and know when the symbol appears next to somebody’s name what level of service can be offered. If a forward seat is left vacant it won’t be the fault of the cabin crew because they are well drilled in making sure everyone who can be offered an upgrade is offered it. I’ve watched it a hundred times from the comfort of my mid cabin exit point seats over many years.
As much as I’d like to bash a few of them, the sad reality is most of them won’t have the faintest idea until the upgrade has happened. Jason Clare’s case isn’t isolated either. I’ve seen quite a few people with injuries or restrictions upgraded to avoid unnecessary and often painful contact with other patrons during flights; it’s just not that big of an issue.
Dutton’s use of Gina’s private jet is a matter for him to deal with. Once you’ve been branded by her, that’s a stain that doesn’t fade quickly. Given the relationship she has with her own children, I’d be giving her the widest berth possible, pardon the pun!

Fancy Bridget McKenzie sticking her head up as the opposition head kicker to go after the government for allegedly rorting.

Ms McKenzie is the same person who brought pork barrelling to national prominence by using her ministerial discretion when in government to favour marginal electorates to the tune of $100 million for the allocation of grants in the lead up to the 2019 election. The “Sports Rorts Affair” as it became known was followed by an audit investigation which confirmed her misdeeds and its final report scathing of her actions, with widespread demands for her to resign. Unfortunately she is still there, five years on!

A further investigation was commissioned at the time by then PM Scott Morrison and undertaken by the Secretary of PM&C who was a close ally and friend of the leader.

Unsurprisingly the investigation and report (known as the Gaetjens report) found no evidence of wrongdoing.

How soon people forget!

When I was working at Parliament House in the 1990s, there was yet another travel rort being uncovered. At the time, all travel expenses were thoroughly investigated. The conclusion? A few pollies were lily-white (mostly Democrats, if you remember them), a few were black as the ace of spades and were required to make repayments, and almost all were some shade of grey.

Fudging of travel entitlements have been going on forever, and for one side to start accusing the other of rorts will only end in tears for everyone that gets involved. Bridget and Dutton were foolish to even start this little caper, as friendly fire was absolutely inevitable.

When pollies attack other pollies over perks, they’ve just made a critical error in judgement

Some politicians are just not very smart, do they not so any self-analysis before making accusations like this? Like it or not, there is a case for a PM or senior official being separated for safety and confidentiality reasons on commercial flights, the question is why they were not paying for business class anyway? As for Dutton, pro-mining stooge taking far more expensive travel from a mining magnate should raise ethical questions….but it doesn’t in Australia where a significant number of politicans wear their shamelessness as a badge of honour and actually seem affronted when confronted. The lack of integrity is built into the system, it’s all about not getting caught.