Anthony Albanese and Alan Joyce aren’t to blame for Qantas’ political fiasco, says author Joe Aston

Australians are locked in an abusive relationship with Qantas, according to the author of the explosive new book that details how the airline peddles influence in Canberra to maintain its market dominance and strangle competition at the expense of the travelling public.

Joe Aston’s book The Chairman’s Lounge has dominated national headlines because it has exposed the cosy relationship between Qantas and federal politicians, from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese down, in which MPs regularly seek and are granted free upgrades and access to the airline’s exclusive Chairman’s Lounge.

Mr Aston said Qantas was the country’s most effective lobbyist given it was not just highly effective at compromising politicians, but also skilled at using its emotional connection and market dominance to manipulate the public into an unhealthy dependence.

“Australia is in an abusive relationship with Qantas,” the former Qantas employee and former AFR journalist said in an extended interview with The Nightly in Sydney.

“Part of it is the frequent flyer program, it’s so powerful — people book flights they don’t even need to take just so they maintain their gold or platinum sales — I’ve done it myself.”

But he said beyond this Australians were left with few alternatives.

“The thing is Qantas can be hated temporarily — Qantas can be hated permanently, frankly, but they have such a dominant position that they’ll be fine,” he said.

“Qantas’ dirty secret — and they’ll never admit this but it is 100 per cent true — they know that no matter how poorly they treat their customers, most of them will keep coming back for more because what choice do they have?”

Australia has one of the world’s least competitive aviation sectors. Qantas Group holds an iron grip over Australian domestic and international travel with around 65 per cent market share.

By contrast, no single airline in the US has more than 18 per cent market share. Last year, the federal government blocked a request by Qatar Airways to operate more flights to Australia that would have lowered international airfares to Australia, a decision Mr Aston said was “indefensible.”

The book charts CEO Alan Joyce’s spectacular fall from grace, going from the nation’s most loved company executive and his front line role in leading the successful marriage equality campaign, to exploiting the COVID pandemic shutdowns to gut the company.

This included lobbying the then-Coalition Government to deprive rival Virgin of financial support during the border closures, illegally sacking staff and creating its almost-impossible-to-use flight credit system instead of refunding customers for tickets they had bought but could no longer use due to the pandemic.

He said the political class was to blame for allowing the Qantas CEO to operate in this way but that ultimately the public should be most angry at the airline’s Board which could and should have stepped in but didn’t.

“The book’s about how Qantas sold its customers and its employees, to a certain extent, down the river while politicians looked on doing nothing,” he said.

Asked whether Australians should be most angry at Mr Joyce or the Prime Minister, Mr Aston said: “I’d choose a third option and that would be the Qantas board.”

“Albanese wasn’t there when Virgin collapsed and Qantas was very good at making sure Virgin didn’t get any funding to survive.”

He said Mr Albanese, as opposition leader at the time, had actually urged the then Coalition government to support Virgin, to no avail.

Similarly, he said Mr Joyce had convinced himself that he was making necessary decisions but was ultimately backed by his bosses — the board — despite the company haemorrhaging public support.

“When Qantas customers were absolutely in an uproar and the Qantas brand was in crisis, the Qantas Board was telling him he was the best CEO in Australia.

“And nobody else in Australia thought that — maybe a few investors did, but even they changed their mind soon enough.

“When you’re CEO, who just flatly refuses to accept that anything’s going wrong, that’s where the board’s job is to step up and say: ‘Sorry buddy but you seem to have lost touch with what’s going on around you, it’s time for you to go. or at least, it’s time for us to push you in this direction or that direction’.’

“None of that happened.

“So, in Alan Joyce’s, defence, and this book is not really, I assure you, a defence of Alan Joyce but in his defence — he had bosses and his bosses failed to rein him in.”

He said the job of Qantas CEO and Prime Minister was almost equivalent in status and said that Mr Joyce, who held the position for 15 years had become drunk on power.

“If you occupy a position of that kind of power and authority for a very long time, it starts to affect you,” he said.

The expose has caused a furore in Canberra with politicians, including the Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie revealing previously undeclared upgrades, despite attacking the Prime Minister for allegedly similar behaviour.

On Sunday, Labor federal cabinet minister Jason Clare said he had successfully sought a free upgrade for an international holiday from a Qantas staffer and cited having had skin cancer surgery on his leg as a reason.

But it is the cosy relationship between the prime minister and Mr Joyce that has blown open the decades-long practice, whereby Qantas hands out free upgrades to the political class and grants them access to the Chairman’s Lounge.

Mr Aston wrote that Mr Albanese sought scores of upgrades, sometimes by directly asking the Qantas CEO, during his time in federal politics including when Transport Minister.

Mr Albanese claims he has never asked Mr Joyce directly for an upgrade but when pressed in an interview if this request may have been done by his staff in his name, said only: “Not to my knowledge.”

Mr Albanese was also forced into confirming that he had asked that his young adult son Nathan be given access to the exclusive Chairman’s Lounge, a request that was granted.

He has never declared the benefit to his son on his parliamentary register of interests and attacked Mr Aston for reporting it.

The PM has sought to paint Mr Aston, who worked for former Liberal MPs before his time at Qantas and as a journalist, as being motivated by politics.

He has pointed to Mr Aston’s CV as well as the journalist’s decision to interview former Prime Minister John Howard at a Liberal party fundraiser in the eastern suburbs seat of a Wentworth in June.

Mr Aston said he was equally critical of all sides over the years and that while he accepted criticism for agreeing to interview Mr Howard doing so was in no way an expression of support for the Liberal party.

“Absolutely not. No,” he said. “I interviewed John Howard, I don’t think the questions were particularly easy,” Mr Aston said.

“I didn’t get paid.”

He said anyone questioning his motives only had to read his criticisms of former Coalition Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and former Coalition ministers Barnaby Joyce and Michael McMcormack and their handling of Qantas matters over the years.

“I was absolutely scathing of all of those ministers, I’m scathing of people in power who fail to live up to the expectations of office and unfortunately in Australia in the last 10 years that’s been people from every side of politics.”

He said the donation of upgrades gave Qantas a unique lobbying power because, unlike other major companies, it was able to hand out freebies worth tens of thousands of dollars in a way that would never be possible for other corporates such as banks.

“Qantas, over a generation, has been very good at compromising politicians, getting them into the situation where they feel comfortable asking for an upgrade, they’re made to feel like, call me anytime there’s nothing, no request is too much,” he said.

“Politicians are the only people in Australia who pay for economy seats and never fly economy.

“They don’t go to the airport with a neck pillow with their fingers crossed.

“They literally receive a new ticket long before the day of travel, they receive a brand new ticket that doesn’t say economy.”

He said it was probably time for free upgrades for MPs to be banned.

“Why would any company be sponsoring the holidays of politicians? I don’t see how it’s right,” he said.

“Qantas fell completely out of line during COVID.

“And neither side of politics did anything meaningful to stand up for Qantas’ customers who are being screwed to the wall.

“They’re all so coddled by Qantas, they all have their Chairman’s Lounge, they all have their direct line where they can say ‘hey throw me an upgrade.

“They don’t know what it’s like for the travelling public, and that’s how they lose touch with what’s really going on and how a company like Qantas is allowed to betray Australia.”