Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie has some upgrading to do on her parliamentary register over free flight upgrades. Photo: Bridget McKenzie Instagram.
The Nationals senate leader and shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie failed to declare more than a dozen flight upgrades during her time in the Federal Parliament, despite recently leading the charge against Anthony Albanese’s travel arrangements.
The Prime Minister was forced to fend off accusations he used his influence and friendship with Alan Joyce to gain 22 free upgraded Qantas flights in the days when Mr Joyce was the airline’s boss, and Mr Albanese was the transport minister (and then the Opposition leader).
Those allegations were made in a new book by Joe Aston, but Mr Albanese has denied asking for the perks or initiating any calls for Qantas upgrades.
Senator McKenzie has threatened to have Mr Joyce hauled before another parliamentary inquiry to answer the claims over Mr Albanese soliciting flight upgrades.
“We really do need to understand the influence that the Prime Minister’s personal and financial gain through these upgrades for he and his family have had on his personal intervention in protecting Qantas from competition,” she said last week as part of a media campaign over the issue.
By Friday (1 November), the Nationals senator had to backpedal over statements she made about her own travel declarations.
While initially insisting she had never received an upgrade, Senator McKenzie told ABC Radio she actually had and was wrong to have said she hadn’t.
“I think it was wrong of me to be so emphatic earlier this week,” she said.
“I don’t probably believe I should be subjecting other people to standards I’m not prepared to subject myself to … The difference between myself and the Prime Minister is that the Prime Minister was the minister for transport.
“He was actually in charge of regulating the aviation sector.”
Senator McKenzie instigated an audit of her travel to determine how many more upgrades she has received and wrote to Qantas, Virgin and Rex airlines asking for details.
The airlines have all written back and the Senator is cross-checking the information with her own records before updating her parliamentary register of interests.
A report in The Australian Financial Review, however, claims Senator McKenzie received more than a dozen free flight upgrades over a number of years from Qantas and Virgin.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has leapt to Senator McKenzie’s defence, saying if there has been an error on her part, the record should be corrected, but he added that the circumstances were a “completely different thing” from those of the PM.
He also questioned whether the media report of his Coalition colleague’s free upgrades was accurate.
“I think the real issue here is this, we have a Prime Minister who, when transport minister, is alleged to have actively reached out and lobbied for personal upgrades. That’s inappropriate,” Mr Taylor told ABC Radio.
“If there’s been any error on that, then it should be corrected. I mean, that’s very simple.”
Senator McKenzie is expected to make a statement soon and will likely argue that she did not ask for the upgrades.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also had to correct statements that he hadn’t asked for a free flight on billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s private jet in 2022.
He has since acknowledged that he actually did seek and accept the free flight from regional Queensland to Sydney to attend a Bali memorial ceremony and then on to Mackay.
“We asked the government for a RAAF flight, they played games, and they didn’t offer that flight, and at that point, I think we had a charter estimate, which was about $40,000 to fly from Rockhampton to Sydney and then back to Mackay,” Mr Dutton said.
“I thought that was very expensive, and the cheaper option for the taxpayer was for my office to speak to Mrs Rinehart’s office as to whether the plane might be available.”
The Opposition Leader said he saw no problem with accepting a free flight from a billionaire.
“That was at zero cost to the taxpayer,” he said.
The ongoing scandal is resulting in MPs and senators across the spectrum rushing to upgrade their travel arrangements on their parliamentary registers.
Parliamentary rules insist senators and members should declare gifts within 28 days of receipt.
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