Opposition Leader Peter Dutton must explain why he lied about requesting a free flight from billionaire Gina Rinehart, says Education Minister Jason Clare.
Before setting his sights on Dutton, Clare told Seven’s Sunrise the hold-up in the flat-out denial from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over accusations he directly solicited Qantas flight upgrades was to “make sure that the information that he was providing was accurate”.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Education Minister Jason Clare.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Martin Ollman
“If you’ve been in parliament for a long time, you want to make sure you go through all those records … that are more than a decade long. He’s done that,” he said.
“That’s the difference between the prime minister and Peter Dutton. Peter Dutton was asked the same question and he lied.”
Clare continued with an attack on Dutton over his admission that he did, in fact, request a free flight from billionaire Gina Rinehart, after previously denying making the request.
Clare said:
The key here is, declare it if it’s happened, and be honest about it.
Peter Dutton was asked, did he ask billionaire Gina Rinehart to use her private plane? And he said ‘no’.
Now it turns out that that’s a lie. So the bloke who’s been attacking the prime minister up hill and down dale all week about this is guilty of the thing that he wrongly accused the prime minister of.
So when Peter Dutton eventually fronts the camera today, he needs to answer the question: why did he lie?”
But the screws were then turned on Clare, who said that he’s had four upgrades in 10 years, but couldn’t rule out having requested a flight upgrade before checking his records.
“The first answer I gave was, you have to make sure you’re honest here. I will check,” Clare said.
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