Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has launched a frustrated defence of his transparency in office amid a furore over his close relationship with former Qantas chief Alan Joyce and the 22 flight upgrades he has received.
An extract from former AFR columnist Joe Aston’s The Chairman’s Lounge, published in Good Weekend on Saturday, revealed that Albanese and Joyce liaised directly on the upgrades for his family and personal travel.
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Albanese says he has been “completely transparent” about his flight upgrades, declaring all his flights in an “appropriate way.”
The PM pivoted his defence to an attack on Peter Dutton and the Coalition.
“My flights were commercial with Qantas or Virgin or Emirates. They were all declared in the appropriate way. I didn’t have to declare any flights on private jets owned by billionaires like Gina Rinehart because I haven’t engaged in it, it’s as simple as that,” Albanese said.
“It’s up to Mr Dutton to explain how those flights were organised to private parties.”
Albanese also claimed he was “far from being the most frequently upgraded parliamentarian”, naming shadow communications minister Paul Fletcher as having declared 69 flight upgrades.
The prime minister then turned his attacks to the author of the book, Joe Aston, accusing him of having links to the Liberal party:
I just make the point that the person who is trying to sell a book, and fair enough, I don’t see declarations that he’s a former Liberal Party staffer for a number of senior members of the Liberal party, including Joe Hockey and Bruce Baird.
I don’t see declarations in June, just a few months ago, he was a guest him and John Howard, a Liberal Party fundraiser in the electorate of Wentworth.”
Aston declared in his book that he was previously a Liberal staffer and worked for Qantas.
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