Albo A.K.A Klepto has a tin ear:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has moved to calm ministerial colleagues about the Qantas flights saga, insisting at a meeting of his entire ministry on Wednesday that he has his house in order and is the victim of an unfair media campaign.
…Albanese told his ministers that expenses scandals usually ran in the media for days, with mudslinging on both sides, before subsiding and that he was subject to an exaggerated media attack as tabloid newspapers showed him in Qantas pyjamas on their front pages.
“The same thing happened to Kevin [Rudd], the same thing to Julia [Gillard], then Bill [Shorten], now me,” one MP who was present recalled the prime minister saying.
But one person in attendance described Albanese’s speech as a “massive sook-up”, and said it was another example of his office failing to immediately close down a damaging story.
Has anyone given Klepto an IQ test? Why would he use the example of not even one-termers Rudd or Gillard to defend himself?
The point that Klepto is missing is not the underlying scandal, which is bad enough.
The pile-on should tell him that everybody is angry and looking for a reason to express it.
And why wouldn’t they be angry after an unprecedented two years of Labor per capita recession?
An expenses scandal in that context is far more explosive than it would normally be.
Especially one that is all about the very discretionary perks that the majority of Australians have had to cut to survive Albo’s failed economy.
The only sensible political reaction to the scandal is for Albo to ban the Chairman’s Lounge for his MPs.
But no, instead it is a damn free-for-all:
…David Epstein, who joined the prime minister’s office in March as principal private secretary, was Qantas group executive for government and corporate affairs between 2008 and 2010, a period in which Mr Albanese received free flight upgrades.
…On the Coalition side, former Joe Hockey staffer Olivia Wirth joined Qantas in 2009 and went on to run the airline’s loyalty business before stepping down in October 2023.
Jacqui Kempler worked for Malcolm Turnbull for almost five years to 2010. She joined Qantas in 2012 and then in 2015 left to join Mr Turnbull’s prime ministerial office before returning to Qantas in early 2017.
Sky News reported on Wednesday night that Mr Albanese was also a close acquaintance of Andrew Parker, who has also run government affairs for Qantas. The network reported Mr Parker handled the prime minister’s upgrades when he was with Qantas from May 2013 to July 2021, it also published a photo of a plaque at the executive’s home that said it was opened by Mr Albanese and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian.
…Qantas’ head of strategic communications Henry Budd spent six years with former Coalition frontbencher Marise Payne, including in the foreign affairs portfolio.
Another of Mr Albanese’s advisers, Moksha Watts, was head of sustainability and industry affairs at Qantas from April 2018 to July 2020.
Ban the lurk or crash land at the ballot box.
