First-class favours
As Albanese continues to face scrutiny over his Qantas upgrades, politicians may have more to learn from corporate Australia than they'd care to admit.
Anthony Albanese’s Qantas scandal isn't just dominating conversations in the halls of Parliament this week. It's also been a topic of discussion in corporate Australia, with questions around what the response would be if it was a company executive or director who had attempted to secure such upgrades.
After all, who can forget the furore last year when it was revealed that Santos leased a private jet in 2022, at a cost of millions of dollars, for use by its board and executive team? The oil and gas giant's CEO Kevin Gallagher had family accompany him on the company jet multiple times. The company said it did not result in additional costs and there was no suggestion of conflict of interest. But even this episode was enough to raise serious questions and the ire of some shareholder groups.
Big business isn’t always a prime example of good governance or good judgement. Still, there are perhaps more lessons for Canberra in the way some companies operate than vice versa. Because while there are no universally mandated standards for receiving freebies in the private sector, or asking for them, many companies have policies that force the employee to justify any perks they receive upfront. It is not necessarily good enough just to declare it after the fact (as happened with the prime minister).
Australian Shareholders' Association chief executive Rachel Waterhouse tells Capital Brief that the expectations of listed companies from their shareholders include a code of conduct, a register, and specific policies on gifts and travel expenses.
