Usually, this kind of arrogance creeps in after two or three terms of government. The Albanese government got a head start, thanks to its dodgy leader.
In recent months, we have watched on as Albo allocated $100m to upgrade the road to Avoca to his recently purchased $4.3m lovenest on the ocean at the end of said thoroughfare.
We have discovered as well that Albo is showering local governments with housing pork, even as the worst homelessness crisis in the nation’s history keeps getting worse because Albo personally tore down the borders with India early in his tenure.
Now, new revelations show the character of the man:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under pressure to explain his relationship with former Qantas chief Alan Joyce after a new book revealed he had received dozens of free upgrades for personal travel with the airline after making direct requests to the then-CEO.
The Chairman’s Lounge, by former Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston, reveals that Albanese received at least 22 free Qantas upgrades from economy class, including some for his family and for personal travel, which amounted to tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts.
…The revelations contained in the new book will reignite questions about federal Labor’s decision to reject Qatar Airways’ bid to add 21 weekly flights to Australia and whether it was against national interests.
Albanese appears to have declared the upgrades on parliament’s register of members’ interests, in line with the rules for MPs, but the details of how he received them have not been revealed until now. The prime minister received the upgrades when he was transport minister, then opposition transport spokesman, and opposition leader.
Feathering his nest appears to be an Albo speciality:
The book also claims that soon after winning the May 2022 election, Mr Albanese asked Mr Joyce to make his son Nathan a member of the exclusive Chairman’s Lounge, a fact not included on his declaration of interests.
Mr Albanese defended the move on Sunday, saying that his son simply became his “plus one” for the lounge after his marriage to Carmel Tebbutt ended in 2019. He argued that politicians’ families should not be the subject of media “targeting”.
However, Mr Albanese’s fiancee, Jodie Haydon is also a member of the Chairman’s Lounge, the Financial Review can reveal. Mr Albanese’s register of interests show Ms Haydon received a complimentary Chairman’s Lounge membership in October 2022, just months after the election.
Nor do we know how this impacted his aerospace policymaking. Qantas protectionism, and the post-COVID shock-rorting that followed, are all just a big coincidence.
So, why isn’t any of this being investigated by Albo’s celebrated National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)?
Because he ensured it was corrupt too:
Pocock, the independent senator for the ACT, said “public confidence has clearly been shaken”.
“Public confidence in the NACC is incredibly important,” he said.
“We see that the Labor Party sided with the Coalition to set up the legislation in a way that we have no real oversight of what is happening in the NACC.”
Independent MPs accused the Albanese government of watering down a newly legislated independent body that monitors misconduct by ensuring that a committee led by government and opposition politicians decides serious sanctions.
David Shoebridge, a Greens senator, said that with “public confidence in the NACC falling”, it was wrong to limit public hearings.
“We have a Prime Minister who, when he was the opposition leader, talked about the need for sunlight and a national anti-corruption commission that would finally address public concerns about secrecy and corruption at a federal level,” Shoebridge said.
Add Albo’s relentless lies about the government’s economic performance, not to mention his incredible fear of corporate lobbies, and what we get is what we see.
A dirty backroom bovver boy with his hand out.
