Cabinet documents went missing at Doha airport ahead of Labor's Qatar decision
A locked bag containing cabinet documents was lost at Doha Airport one week before the Albanese government controversially blocked Qatar Airways from launching additional flights to Australia.
A staffer for Labor minister Murray Watt left a locked bag containing cabinet documents on a plane at Doha Airport last year, just one week before the Albanese government controversially decided to block Qatar Airways from launching additional flights to Australia.
The incident, which took place in July 2023, set off a diplomatic scramble to retrieve the confidential documents, which were nowhere to be found within minutes of being identified as lost.
Capital Brief can reveal that Watt, who was agriculture minister at the time, was flying with his team back from an official trip to Italy and India when the 'cabinet bag' was left on a plane at Hamad International Airport in Doha. After attempting to retrieve the bag shortly afterwards, they were told it could not be found.
Watt’s office then alerted Australia’s embassy in Doha, which was also unable to retrieve the bag, according to multiple sources who were granted anonymity to discuss the incident.
