Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing scrutiny again over the government’s decision to block extra flights into Australia by a Middle Eastern airline, after it was revealed he held a secret meeting with Qantas’ former chief executive officer.
Qatar Airways had sought the Australian government in August 2022 to expand its 28 services in major capital cities by another 21 flights each week.
However, the request was denied almost one year later by Transport Minister Catherine King before accusations were thrown around it was to help Qantas remain dominant.
Mr Albanese repeatedly stressed in the days and weeks after the rejection that Qantas played no part in the government’s decision to block Qatar’s application.
But a redacted copy of the Prime Minister’s diary has revealed he met with then-Qantas chief Alan Joyce six weeks after the Middle Eastern airline made its request.
According to the Australian Financial Review, Mr Albanese had a meeting with Mr Joyce for 30 minutes at Parliament House on the morning of November 23, 2022, about six weeks after the Flying Kangaroo opposed Qatar’s application.
The government had asked for input by Qantas as part of the application process for bilateral air rights.
The airline flagged the extra flights was unfair to non-government funded airlines and suggested it would result in Australian job losses, according to The Australian.
Ms King in a press conference said the decision was in the nation’s interest, later pointing to the invasive search of five Australian women – who had implored the government not to approve the airline’s extra flight request – at a Qatari airport in 2020.
In light of the new revelation, the opposition has called on Mr Albanese to come clean and reveal what he and Mr Joyce discussed in their Parliament House meeting.
The Prime Minister has been adamant he was never lobbied by Qantas, but Today presenter Clint Stanaway questioned whether the AFR report suggested differently.
“Well, it certainly does,” shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said on Thursday.
“And at a time when Australians are paying more for airfares than they should be over the festive period, it’s clear that there’s a credibility issue with the Prime Minister.
“And the real question here is what happened in that discussion on November 22? And how is it that he said in parliament that he hadn’t done a deal with Qantas or that he hadn’t been lobbied by Qantas. And now we find out that there was a meeting.
“You can’t imagine for a moment they didn’t talk about this issue of Qatar Airways.”
Mr Taylor added the Labor leader had to “front up” to the public.
In a Senate committee grilling in August, Mr Joyce refused to divulge conversations, if he had any, with Mr Albanese or other ministers as he wanted to keep discussions private like he had with other prime ministers during his time as CEO.
Qantas was one of the government’s supporters of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which later was voted down by the Australian public in a referendum.
The airline dismissed suggestions its backing had any impact on the government to block the extra Qatar flights into the country.
Some of the Australian airline’s planes had Yes23 logos painted on the bodies.
Mr Albanese in Question Time on September 4 said he had not been lobbied by Qantas and had one “substantive conversation” on the Qatar decision but did not reveal who with.
Days later he admitted Mr Joyce had hitched a ride with him on his private-government funded plane after the Jobs and Skills Summit in 2022, but the CEO did pay for his trip, shining a further light on their likely close relationship.
The decision to block Qatar’s request drew anger from experts in the aviation industry, former bosses of Australia’s competition watchdog and the public keen to travel post-COVID as ticket prices to holiday overseas are at an all-time high due to demand.
Virgin CEO Jayne Hrdlicka supported Qatar’s application and later called out Mr Joyce who had suggested a short-term of doubling of flights would cause a “distortion”.
“You need to add seats where the demand exists, and the constraints are in these major capital cities,” she told ABC’s RN Breakfast last year.
Flight Centre chief Graham Turner, who also opposed the Albanese government’s move, said there is more demand than capacity.
“You could argue that it could have been in Qantas’s interests, it certainly wasn’t in Virgin’s interest because they have a codeshare relationship with Qatar, so I just don’t think it was an argument that held any water,” he told The World Today.
In December, Turkish Airlines was approved to fly 35 flights a week out of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth by 2025, up from the current of seven services.
(SKY NEWS)
