TRANSCRIPT - Sky News First Edition with Kenny Heatley

PAUL FLETCHER MP

Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts

Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy

Manager of Opposition Business in the House

TRANSCRIPT

SKY NEWS First Edition with Kenny Heatley

1 November 2024

Kenny Heatley: Joining me live is Manager of Opposition Business Paul Fletcher. Paul, thanks for joining us. What’s your response to that?

Paul Fletcher: Well, let’s look here at what the underlying public policy issue is. When we saw reports in Joe Aston’s new book claims made by Joe Aston as the author of that book, that sources had told him that Mr Albanese would personally ask the chief executive of Qantas for upgrades. That obviously sparked a considerable degree of media interest. Now the public policy issue is this. What is the nature of Mr Albanese’s friendship with Mr Jouce and his relationship with Qantas and does it impact on decisions such as the decision last year, when there was an application by Qatar to have 28 additional flights a week between Australia and its hub in the Middle East and then on to other parts of the world? Now, that would have produced increased competition in aviation, that would have reduced airfares for Australians at a time when we’re all facing cost of living pressures. But Australians do like our travel for very good reasons. And yet we had a whole series of explanations from the Minister, Catherine King, as to why that Qatar application had been refused. It is certainly a legitimate question to ask. Was Mr Albanese involved in that decision? Well, he was Prime Minister, so it wouldn’t have happened without him. And was he influenced because of his closeness with Mr Joyce and with Qantas? 

Kenny Heatley: The Prime Minister earlier this week pointed out 69 flight upgrades that you’ve been awarded since 2009. Why so many?

Paul Fletcher: Well, what I have explained, and indeed it’s explained in my disclosures, is that my practice is when I’m taking a domestic flight of less than two hours, so that’s Sydney-Melbourne, Sydney-Brisbane, Sydney-Canberra, I go economy. So the rules say politicians can travel business on all domestic flights. The personal rule I’ve set for myself is to travel economy. That happened to be the rule at the last company I worked for, Optus, domestic flights less than two hours you go economy. Seemed to me like a sensible measure. Now the airline will sometimes give you upgrades. I’ve been in the parliament almost 15 years. That’s how you get to 69.

Kenny Heatley: And none of your staffers have contacted Qantas to ask?

Paul Fletcher: I’ve never asked for an upgrade. I’ve made it clear to my staff not to ask.  In particular, I’ve made it clear to my staff book in economy. And that has been my practice. My view is that’s the way of not spending more on travel than needs to be spent. So that’s the reason.

Kenny Heatley: There’s a push now particularly from independent Senator David Pocock that there needs to be reforms around airline upgrades. Do you agree?

Paul Fletcher: Well, there’s a set of disclosure rules which need to be complied with. I think one of the issues that’s emerged this week is whether Mr Albanese complied with those disclosure rules in respect of flights for family members. So the first thing is to make sure that everybody is complying with the disclosure rules. And look, the public policy issue here again is, if you’re travelling for work and all politicians travel a lot, we’re a big country. We’re on planes a lot. I think the nature of the allegations in the book this week were that when Mr Albanese was on personal trips, travelling say, you know, booked and paid for an economy flight to another part of the world for a holiday and everybody is entitled to take a holiday. But was he asking for upgrades in that context? That’s the question. That’s the allegation. I’m not making a claim. I’m simply saying that is what has been reported was the allegation in the book that Joe Aston has released this week. And that, I think, is one of the issues that has generated a lot of interest. 

Kenny Heatley: Okay, Paul, we’ve got to run. We’re out of time. But thanks for coming in.