How to Make Gravy
It’s not just politicians. Senior regulators with oversight of Qantas are also members of its exclusive Chairman’s Lounge.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is again facing intense criticism over his penchant for the gravy train amid a brewing Qantas upgrade scandal. But the simmering controversy also raises serious questions that go beyond the PM and even parliament — specifically, relating to the relationship between Qantas and executives leading the government agencies with oversight of the national carrier.
The controversy has been ignited by journalist Joe Aston's new book The Chairman's Lounge, which among other things, revealed that Albanese had directly contacted former Qantas chief Alan Joyce to request flight upgrades worth tens of thousands of dollars.
As the title suggests, the book delves heavily into Qantas' invite-only lounge, which, as Aston points out, has almost no peers outside of Australia. While some US and European carriers have invitation-only tiers in their frequent-flyer programs, none of them operate dedicated lounges for those customers.
Just about every federal MP is a member of the exclusive club, which is in fact a network of lounges operating in every mainland state capital, as well as Canberra. While Aston is unable to establish a causal link between the lounge and government decisions such as the blocking of Qatar Airways from launching additional flights, it is no stretch to suggest that it has influenced policy decisions involving Qantas.
