Australia's Prime Minister is facing increasing scrutiny for allegedly asking the boss of Qantas for personal flight upgrades.
Anthony Albanese is accused of asking for upgrades on 30 flights, dating all the way back to a flight from Christchurch to Sydney in 1999.
Albanese claims he's doing everything by the book.
But Australia correspondent Steve Price told Mike Hosking he's failed to answer questions about his contact with former Qantas boss Alan Joyce.
He says the ones that are causing him trouble are private flights on holidays that are nothing to do with Government business.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In Australia see Price Morning to you, good Adad. I
was watching Elbanezy trying to defend himself yesterday by saying
everything had been declared, and I thought, that's not answering
the question, mate, and you know it. And then he
started raising Dutton and private planes and stuff. What is
it about him that he doesn't have the this somehow,
in some way is going to come back and bite
(00:22):
me in the bum in a major way.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Not sure I can even answer that question. Watching that
same train repress conference yesterday, I just could not believe it.
I mean, he was being asked direct questions. Did you
ever bring up Alan Joyce and asked an upgrade? He
then waffled on about two flights that were completely different
from the ones that are causing him trouble. The ones
that are causing him trouble are private flights on holidays,
got nothing to do with government business. That's point number one.
(00:48):
So the flights that everyone wants to know about, And
a simple question, did you directly lobby Alan Joyce the
sego to get an upgrade or you know the way
how this all works, but you go by an economy
ticket if you've got contacts within the airline, you hope
that you can possibly get a vacant business class or
an international flight that's first class seat Albanies. He wouldn't
(01:11):
answer that question now, he could have just said no,
because I imagine the way this would have worked, certainly now
that he's PM, would be that someone in his office
ring someone in contiss and that's the way that works.
But the problem he has is he was either Transport
Minister under Kevin Rudd and Juliet Gillard, and then he
(01:32):
was opposition transport spokesman, went in opposition and then he
was Transport Minister again, then he was Prime Minister. So
that's different from Joe blow the public getting an upgrade
because he has influence over what the airline can and
can't do and over airline policy. And this all comes
(01:53):
back to that decision last year that not many people
could understand when Katar tried to get more flights into
Australia and they were told the current government, headed by
Anthony Albanize that no, we're not going to let you
do that. We don't think that the competition requires it.
So he hasn't answered the questions. Peter Dutton, I mean
Peter Dutton's now said oh well he should you turn
(02:13):
himself into the Anti Corruption Commision. Well he's not going
to do that. And Anthony Abanize, as you said yesterday,
went on about Peter Dutton flying on Gina Rhinehart's private jet. Well,
Anthony Albanezi flew to a place very close to where
I'm sitting right now on trucking magnet Lindsay Fox's private
helicopter have a barbecue with Dan Andrews, the then premier.
(02:34):
So he's in a world of pain. Interestingly, I woke
up earlier this morning thinking about your Prime minister, who
of course would know all about this because he ran
an airline, correct and can you imagine how many people
used to bring up Prime Minister Luxe and then say
can I have an upgrade? Mate? He would be laughing
his head off about all of this.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Do you get to see it's a weird thing. I'm
sure you're following the starma thing in Britain as well,
where they you know, he's getting free suits and his
wife's getting dresses and they're picking up free glasses, reading glasses,
and it's like it doesn't happen here. It's like you
just don't get that sort of thing, and it's just
it's sort of foreign to us. It's too you know,
(03:14):
you're in an exalted position at the best of times.
To think you can ring somebody up and say put
me at the front of the plane, mate, and that
not come back and haunt you as seems astonishing to me.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Particularly when you often run the line that you know,
how remarkable it is that I'm Prime Minister, given I
grew up in social housing in Western Sydney with a
single mom who had no money. This is not the
first time that Anthony Abanue has had this sort of issue.
I mean, and you know, you don't have to go
back what three weeks and he's entitled to buy a
four point three million dollar beach house. But we're in
(03:47):
the middle of a housing crisis, in the middle of
a cost of living crisis. So I don't know, maybe
when you do come out of you know, a not
so privileged background, he was hardly underprivileged, and you're a
professional politician for thirty five years, maybe it just goes
to your head. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Amazing this COVID report. I mean, it's not a surprise,
but what one what are they going to do with it,
and will they learn any real lessons? And two do
they have any confidence that in the next pandemic anyone's
going to follow any instructions at all?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, the question, the answer to all those questions is no.
It will end up in the bottom drawer of some
minister's office. Interestingly, the PM yesterday didn't was not the
person who released it. It's an eight hundred and eighty
eight page report. Mark Butler, the Health Minister, was the
man who came out and talked about how you know,
during the pandemic we weren't ready for it. It was
called a forensic assessment. I don't know that it was
(04:42):
that forensic. Interestingly, when they commissioned it, they did not
ask the people running this investigation into the COVID response
what they thought of things like state boarder closure, shut
down of schools and playgrounds. But the report itself came
out and said, well, that was not a thing to do.
It's eight hundred and sixty eight pages. I should say
(05:03):
you noted this report that they closed schools which quote
had a significant impact on the mental health of children,
despite and there's no real criticism in there. Interesting, they
are no names about the politicians like Daniel Andrews, like
Anastasia Palache, like Mark McGowan in wa no criticism of
the way they handled it. What we wanted to know was,
(05:25):
you know, should they have been telling us that we
couldn't go out of our house at after nine o'clock
at night? You can only walk for an hour and
with one person. I mean, you know what it did
for me when I started reading the assessment of it,
it just took me back.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Ninemenes Go agree more. Well, the person who ran our pandemic,
of course, got a Dame hood out of it, and
is now sitting at Harvard wandering around the world collecting
twenty thirty thousand dollars every time she speaks publicly about it.
And you still have you still got mandates on you know.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Well this came out coincidentally on the day that report
came out. So you've got the son of bushfires season
about to start, and dozens of unvaccinated firefighters are Can
you believe this still banned from going to work three
years after being stood down without pay, Now that's just extraordinary.
(06:14):
Thirty nine operational firefighters and ten other staff who work
at Fire Rescue Victoria are still prohibited from working because
they're unvaccinated. I mean, that's just ridiculous. It's the last
public service agency in Victoria to do that. But when
you trust, when you need firefighters, who now asks you
if you're vaccinated or not? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Hey, listen, I mentioned Heralds to you last week who
went into administration, the well known clothing shop Mosaic brands
who run they're here as well, of course, and they're
Runningkaties and Millers and Non d and all that. So
they got three thousand employees, they're into administration. What's your
assessment of retail in Australia generally? Are you in trouble?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah? I think so. In those two cases are the
ones that highlight it most, and that's you know, that's
the mid range of clothing retail. So it's not the
top more. Harold's at the top end, but what you
just mentioned there those other stores are very much mid range.
And so it just shows that the economy is still
very shaky. People are not going out updating their wardrobe.
(07:16):
They can't afford they can't afford to pay their electricity
in gas bill. So it comes as no surprise. And interestingly,
Jim charmers and the Treasurer Alas Dodger's questions about that, says, oh, well,
you know, economy's going okay, we've got a budget surplus.
Well that doesn't do any good for anyone who can't
afford to put food on the table.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Exactly all right, might go, well, see you next week.
Appreciate it very much. Steve Price out of Australia, by
the way, just before we leave their Maya, speaking of retail,
yesterday signed a nine hundred and fifty million dollar They
also they're bullish. They bought a bunch of Solomon lou
Solomon Loo's famous as a businessman apart from anything, but
probably best known here for Peter, Alexander and Smiggle. But
he also also known here had just jeans, JJ's Portman's
(07:57):
Jackie Dotty. That's the stuff. He's sold to Mayer for
the total deals nine hundred million. He collects AD two million,
but they give him shares, and by getting the shares
he ends up on the Meyer board, which I suspect
is where he wanted to be.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
In Australia see Price Morning to you, good Adad. I
was watching Elbanezy trying to defend himself yesterday by saying
everything had been declared, and I thought, that's not answering
the question, mate, and you know it. And then he
started raising Dutton and private planes and stuff. What is
it about him that he doesn't have the this somehow,
in some way is going to come back and bite
(00:22):
me in the bum in a major way.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Not sure I can even answer that question. Watching that
same train repress conference yesterday, I just could not believe it.
I mean, he was being asked direct questions. Did you
ever bring up Alan Joyce and asked an upgrade? He
then waffled on about two flights that were completely different
from the ones that are causing him trouble. The ones
that are causing him trouble are private flights on holidays,
got nothing to do with government business. That's point number one.
(00:48):
So the flights that everyone wants to know about, And
a simple question, did you directly lobby Alan Joyce the
sego to get an upgrade or you know the way
how this all works, but you go by an economy
ticket if you've got contacts within the airline, you hope
that you can possibly get a vacant business class or
an international flight that's first class seat Albanies. He wouldn't
(01:11):
answer that question now, he could have just said no,
because I imagine the way this would have worked, certainly now
that he's PM, would be that someone in his office
ring someone in contiss and that's the way that works.
But the problem he has is he was either Transport
Minister under Kevin Rudd and Juliet Gillard, and then he
(01:32):
was opposition transport spokesman, went in opposition and then he
was Transport Minister again, then he was Prime Minister. So
that's different from Joe blow the public getting an upgrade
because he has influence over what the airline can and
can't do and over airline policy. And this all comes
(01:53):
back to that decision last year that not many people
could understand when Katar tried to get more flights into
Australia and they were told the current government, headed by
Anthony Albanize that no, we're not going to let you
do that. We don't think that the competition requires it.
So he hasn't answered the questions. Peter Dutton, I mean
Peter Dutton's now said oh well he should you turn
(02:13):
himself into the Anti Corruption Commision. Well he's not going
to do that. And Anthony Abanize, as you said yesterday,
went on about Peter Dutton flying on Gina Rhinehart's private jet. Well,
Anthony Albanezi flew to a place very close to where
I'm sitting right now on trucking magnet Lindsay Fox's private
helicopter have a barbecue with Dan Andrews, the then premier.
(02:34):
So he's in a world of pain. Interestingly, I woke
up earlier this morning thinking about your Prime minister, who
of course would know all about this because he ran
an airline, correct and can you imagine how many people
used to bring up Prime Minister Luxe and then say
can I have an upgrade? Mate? He would be laughing
his head off about all of this.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Do you get to see it's a weird thing. I'm
sure you're following the starma thing in Britain as well,
where they you know, he's getting free suits and his
wife's getting dresses and they're picking up free glasses, reading glasses,
and it's like it doesn't happen here. It's like you
just don't get that sort of thing, and it's just
it's sort of foreign to us. It's too you know,
(03:14):
you're in an exalted position at the best of times.
To think you can ring somebody up and say put
me at the front of the plane, mate, and that
not come back and haunt you as seems astonishing to me.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Particularly when you often run the line that you know,
how remarkable it is that I'm Prime Minister, given I
grew up in social housing in Western Sydney with a
single mom who had no money. This is not the
first time that Anthony Abanue has had this sort of issue.
I mean, and you know, you don't have to go
back what three weeks and he's entitled to buy a
four point three million dollar beach house. But we're in
(03:47):
the middle of a housing crisis, in the middle of
a cost of living crisis. So I don't know, maybe
when you do come out of you know, a not
so privileged background, he was hardly underprivileged, and you're a
professional politician for thirty five years, maybe it just goes
to your head. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Amazing this COVID report. I mean, it's not a surprise,
but what one what are they going to do with it,
and will they learn any real lessons? And two do
they have any confidence that in the next pandemic anyone's
going to follow any instructions at all?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Well, the question, the answer to all those questions is no.
It will end up in the bottom drawer of some
minister's office. Interestingly, the PM yesterday didn't was not the
person who released it. It's an eight hundred and eighty
eight page report. Mark Butler, the Health Minister, was the
man who came out and talked about how you know,
during the pandemic we weren't ready for it. It was
called a forensic assessment. I don't know that it was
(04:42):
that forensic. Interestingly, when they commissioned it, they did not
ask the people running this investigation into the COVID response
what they thought of things like state boarder closure, shut
down of schools and playgrounds. But the report itself came
out and said, well, that was not a thing to do.
It's eight hundred and sixty eight pages. I should say
(05:03):
you noted this report that they closed schools which quote
had a significant impact on the mental health of children,
despite and there's no real criticism in there. Interesting, they
are no names about the politicians like Daniel Andrews, like
Anastasia Palache, like Mark McGowan in wa no criticism of
the way they handled it. What we wanted to know was,
(05:25):
you know, should they have been telling us that we
couldn't go out of our house at after nine o'clock
at night? You can only walk for an hour and
with one person. I mean, you know what it did
for me when I started reading the assessment of it,
it just took me back.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Ninemenes Go agree more. Well, the person who ran our pandemic,
of course, got a Dame hood out of it, and
is now sitting at Harvard wandering around the world collecting
twenty thirty thousand dollars every time she speaks publicly about it.
And you still have you still got mandates on you know.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Well this came out coincidentally on the day that report
came out. So you've got the son of bushfires season
about to start, and dozens of unvaccinated firefighters are Can
you believe this still banned from going to work three
years after being stood down without pay, Now that's just extraordinary.
(06:14):
Thirty nine operational firefighters and ten other staff who work
at Fire Rescue Victoria are still prohibited from working because
they're unvaccinated. I mean, that's just ridiculous. It's the last
public service agency in Victoria to do that. But when
you trust, when you need firefighters, who now asks you
if you're vaccinated or not? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Hey, listen, I mentioned Heralds to you last week who
went into administration, the well known clothing shop Mosaic brands
who run they're here as well, of course, and they're
Runningkaties and Millers and Non d and all that. So
they got three thousand employees, they're into administration. What's your
assessment of retail in Australia generally? Are you in trouble?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah? I think so. In those two cases are the
ones that highlight it most, and that's you know, that's
the mid range of clothing retail. So it's not the
top more. Harold's at the top end, but what you
just mentioned there those other stores are very much mid range.
And so it just shows that the economy is still
very shaky. People are not going out updating their wardrobe.
(07:16):
They can't afford they can't afford to pay their electricity
in gas bill. So it comes as no surprise. And interestingly,
Jim charmers and the Treasurer Alas Dodger's questions about that, says, oh, well,
you know, economy's going okay, we've got a budget surplus.
Well that doesn't do any good for anyone who can't
afford to put food on the table.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Exactly all right, might go, well, see you next week.
Appreciate it very much. Steve Price out of Australia, by
the way, just before we leave their Maya, speaking of retail,
yesterday signed a nine hundred and fifty million dollar They
also they're bullish. They bought a bunch of Solomon lou
Solomon Loo's famous as a businessman apart from anything, but
probably best known here for Peter, Alexander and Smiggle. But
he also also known here had just jeans, JJ's Portman's
(07:57):
Jackie Dotty. That's the stuff. He's sold to Mayer for
the total deals nine hundred million. He collects AD two million,
but they give him shares, and by getting the shares
he ends up on the Meyer board, which I suspect
is where he wanted to be.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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