From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. The Prime Minister's relationship with former Quantus CEO Alan Joyce and whether he likes a free upgrade has been the talk of Canberra, prompted by the publication of a new book, The Chairman's Lounge. A speculation about what the book would reveal had been swirling for months, and it was widely known in political circles that some of it would be bad for the Prime Minister. But when it was finally published,
Albernezi and his office seemed unprepared. Today, special correspondent for the Saturday Paper Jason cottsircus on the upgrade saga that's entangled politicians from both major parties and whether it matters if politicians get a fancy drink in a fancy chair. It's Monday, November four, So Jason tell me where the story of the Quantus upgrades begins.
So it kicked off last week because of a book, but there's actually been a lot of tension between the author of this book, a former Australian Financial Review columnist named Joe Aston, and the Prime Minister for quite a while. Last year. Joe Aston wrote a story in the Financial Review reporting that Anthony Albaneze's son Nathan, had been granted
membership to Quantus's exclusive Chairman's Lounge. That story, coming so soon after Transport Minister Catherine King had blocked an application from Cutter Airways to add more international flights to Australian roots, dogged Anthony Albanzi for weeks. He refused to confirm or deny whether his son had a membership. He also rang the editor of The Australian to Review, Michael Stutchbury, to
ask him not to run the story. He was also facing question day after day about whether his son's membership of the Chairman's Lounge had somehow led him to act in Quantus's interests over Cutter Airways, and this story infuriated some members of Anthony Aberzi's front bench at the time.
They just couldn't understand why the Prime Minister didn't come out straight away and say, yes, Nathan is a member of the Chairman's Lounge, but he shouldn't be and I've asked him to hand back his membership to Quantas.
Okay, so Joe asked OFMS reporting on this. It turned into a book, The Chairman's Lounge, tell me about what's in that book when it comes to Anthony Albanese's travel.
So this is a book that's really about Quantus and Alan Joyce and how Joe Aston believes that Alan Joyce mismanaged the company in the second half of his tenure as chief executive. But the most explosive allegations in the book concerned the Prime Minister, Anthony Alberanzi and Joe Aston's delegation is that during the time between twenty nine and twenty twenty two, Albanesi received twenty two free upgrades for
himself and one upgrade for his family. You know, this book has been the talk of Canberra for months, and by the time it was published last week it was widely known in the press gallery and I'm sure in the ministerial wing that there were several sections of the book that would cause problems for Anthony Alberenesi. But instead of being ready for questions, it seemed to me that
they were quite flat footed. He was asked about his relationship with Joyce and Quantas and he just tried to bat those questions away by saying that every single thing had been declared.
I have at all times, at all times acted in a transparent and appropriate way.
He was also asked about whether his son was a member of the Chairman's Lounge, and the Prime Minister did concede that, yes, Nathan was a member of the Chairman's Lounge, but he tried to explain that by saying that when he separated from his then wife, Carmel Tebbett in January twenty nineteen, he simply transferred the plus one entitlement to his son. The Prime Minister said, I think you know that people's family shouldn't be the subject of targeting, that
this all happened a while ago. It was a very simple explanation. But the problem was that this was the first time that Albanzier really confirmed his son's membership of the Chairman's Lounge, and it ended up making things a lot worse for him.
Right how so, Jason.
Well in the newspapers on Monday, Johnalist kind of seized on two new details. Firstly, Albanezy he confirmed that his son was a member of the Chairman's Lounge, but he had not declared that his son's membership on his parliamentary declaration of interests, as members of Parliament typically do for their or a partner when it comes to the Chairman's Lounge.
And the other detail that journalist seized on was that the Prime Minister's fiance, Jody Hayden, had also received a complimentary Chairman's Lounge membership in October twenty twenty two, and that's something that is declared on the Prime Minister's Register of interests. So according to the Prime Minister last Sunday, Nathan was his plus one, but Jody Hayden was also a plus one. So you know the circumstances around his son's membership. Yeah, not entirely clear.
Right, And so how did he go on to respond to those details.
Well, he gave another press conference on Tuesday, and I think he made things even worse for himself when he decided that he would try to play the man and not the ball and lashed out at Joyston personally.
Now I've declared everything. I just made this point, and I just make the point as well that the person who is trying to sell a book and fair enough, I don't see decorations. 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 decorations. He as a former Quanus employee, I don't see decorations.
Now.
The problem with that, though, is that Joe Aston did make those declarations and he kind of couldn't have been more explicit about it because those declarations are contained in the first line of the book's first page.
Right, and the strategy of attacking the messenger it rarely works in this case though, it seems to have significantly backfired. So why did the Prime Minister choose to respond in this way?
Well, from my conversations with people in the Prime Minister's office, they recognized that, you know, Albanezy himself knows that he fucked up with that answer. Yeah, that's what someone told me. He knows he fucked up. But another key alban easy ally had the Minister for Defense Industry, Pat Conroy, he landed the attack on Joe Aston a little better. When
he appeared at the National Press Club on Wednesday. He said it was actually very important to point out Aston's affiliation with the Liberal Party, and he said these the claims in this book are made by a former Liberal staffer who as recently as three months ago was the
headline act at a federal Liberal fundraiser. But a bit of a feeding frenzy had already sort of developed in Canberra around this issue, and late on Wednesday, the Prime Minister's spokeswoman was forced to issue a statement to the media saying that the Prime Minister had not ever called
Alan Joyce seeking an upgrade. But even that didn't kill the issue, because that statement seemed to kind of leave open the possibility that perhaps the Prime Minister had tried to contact the CEO of quantest via and other means, and Sydney Radio present Ben Fordham he reached out to the Prime Minister personally and he read out a text message exchange that he had had with the PM on air on two GB on Thursday.
The question was asked, did you ever text Alan Joyce about flight upgrades? The PM's answer no. Did you ever email Alan Joyce about flight upgrades? The PM's answer again no. Did you ever share with Alan Joyce any flights or travel plans without specifically asking for an upgrade? The PM replied no.
The PM said, you know, over thirty years there could have been a mistake, but we've gone through the records and there are none. Why would you call the CEO of quantas to discuss your flights anyway, I haven't spoken to Alan in a very long time.
So who to believe the author of the Chairman's lounge or the Prime Minister? That's after the break Jason Joe Aston says that Anthony Abenezi asked the QUANTU CEO, Alan Joyce to upgrade flights for him. However, Anthony Alberinezi firmly denies ever having done this. So who should we believe you?
Well, it's a really tricky situation. Joe Aston says he's very confident of his sourcing, but we know he didn't speak to Alan Joyce, and we know he didn't speak to the Prime Minister, so how did he get this information? We really do have to trust the Prime Minister when he says that he has been through thirty years of flight records. He's got to be confident because Alan Joyce is likely to be called back before a Senate committee
to answer questions around this issue. So perhaps we'd better wait and see what Alan Joyce has to say before we really issue a kind of any further judgment on who to believe here.
And the focus has been on the Prime Minister on this issue, but of course, he is not the only politician accused of accepting various perks while in office. I mean you could almost say it's endemic to the political class.
Joe Aston actually points out in his book that Alban Easy isn't alone here. Did you ever ring Alan Joyce or anyone in Cornersman?
I do not have a hotline to request upgrades.
I have received an upgrade.
Opposition Transport spokeswoman Bridget Mackenzie was forced to admit this week that she may have received flight upgrades and not properly declared them on her register of interest.
Yeah, I think you know I was wrong earlier this week to be so emphatic. I did end up having an upgrade that I had declared, but it really highlighted for me the need to check.
The Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who spent most of last week calling for Alban Easy, to refer himself to the Knack the National Anti Corruption Commission. He also admitted that he wasn't immune to a freebee either. In twenty twenty two, Dutton borrowed mining billionaire Gena Reinhart's private plane to fly from Queensland to Sydney, and the optics of that aren't
good either. In fact, a photo has been circulating of Gina Ryn Hutt and Peter Dutton on the steps of a Quantus plane waving to the gameras in Peter Dutton's defense, he accused the government of playing games and by not making a taxpayer funded vip jet available.
The cheap option for the taxpayer was for my office to speak to Missus Reinhart's office as to whether the plane might be available.
That was at zero cost to the taxpayer.
But Peter Dutton hasn't hesitated to charge taxpayers in recent years. Between February and August last year, he spent two hundred and twenty four thousand dollars worth of taxpayers money for the use of VIP planes. Government Services Minister Bill Shot chipped in on this this week. And you know, according to Bill Shot and the oppositions trying to make a meal of this, they've held themselves up to be saintly, but actually they're not right.
But I suppose what is important here is what all of this might tell us about the character of the politicians involved. So do you think that this has altered people's perception of the PM?
Well, I think this does go to the PM styles as a leader. A former labor staffer that I spoke to this week, who's who's known the Prime minister since nineteen ninety six, He said to me, look, this is this is classic alban Easy. You know he thinks he knows best, but he's actually terrible on the detail. If you were to ask him, you know who read it on who in the Merrickville South ailed his sub branch elections in the early nineteen nineties, then you know, no problem.
Helban Easy can recall every vote. But when he's under pressure in front of the cameras far too often, you know, this person said to me, you see him trip himself up.
We did see that, of course during the twenty twenty two election campaign, when you know the Prime Minister got into hot water over not being able to recall key economic figures etc. Another Labour insiders said that, you know, Albanesi's love for a freebie is becoming a bit of an open secret, whether it's VIP flights, tickets to sporting events or concerts. You know, rubbing shoulders with corporate high
flyers at these events. The PM is starting to look out of touch and don't forget you know this is coming off the back of news that the Prime Minister bought a four point three million dollar house on the New South Wales Central Coast just a couple of weeks ago, which many people also thought was a bad look and that showed how out of touch the PM is when it comes to the everyday struggles of ordinary Australians.
Jason, thank you for your time.
Absolute pleasure to talk with you.
Ruby. Also in the news today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi has announced that a re elected Labor government would slash student debt by twenty percent. According to the government, this would cut around sixteen billion dollars in debt and would apply to a range of income contingent loans, including help
debts and apprenticeship loans. The plan would see an average help debt of twenty seven thousand, six hundred reduced by around five thousand, five hundred and twenty, with the whole package costing the budget more than five hundred million dollars. The changes would take effect in June next year, and the Education Minister, Jason Clair, has admitted he asked for and received a free flight upgrade from Quantus in twenty nineteen.
Mister Claire said he had recently had surgery, and recalls calling and probably speaking with a government relations official were arranged an upgrade for his private overseas trip. The minister declared the flight at the time, I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. See you tomorrow