Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday,
Speaker 2: the thirtieth of October.
Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
Speaker 2: Prime Minister Anthony Alberesi has been accused of directly asking
Speaker 2: the former CEO of Quantus, Alan Joyce, for free undisclosed
Speaker 2: flight upgrades. The allegation has been detailed in a new
Speaker 2: book by journalist Joe Aston Now. Following the publishing of
Speaker 2: an excerpt of that book over the weekend, the Opposition
Speaker 2: has said it will consider establishing a senate inquiry into
Speaker 2: the matter. The PM, on the other hand, has suggested
Speaker 2: the claims come from a person who is just trying
Speaker 2: to sell a book. In today's deep Dive, we'll explain
Speaker 2: everything you need to know about Anthony Alberesi and Quantas
Speaker 2: First Sam.
Speaker 1: What's making headlines.
Speaker 3: The Victorian government has introduce new laws to improve legal
Speaker 3: processes for victims of violent and sexual crimes. Under legislation
Speaker 3: tabled in State Parliament on Tuesday, victims and witnesses of
Speaker 3: family violence, sexual offenses and stalking cases would only be
Speaker 3: required to give evidence during court proceedings and not during
Speaker 3: pre trial hearings. The measure is aimed at avoiding processes
Speaker 3: that could retraumatize victims by making them repeat their testimonies
Speaker 3: several times. The government has also proposed making videolink court
Speaker 3: appearances the default for alleged offenders. It says this would
Speaker 3: help victims to avoid having to unnecessarily come face to
Speaker 3: face with a perpetrator. Victorian State Attorney General Jacqueline Simes
Speaker 3: says survivors quote deserve justice, not further trauma as they
Speaker 3: move through the legal system.
Speaker 2: Mayer has announced plans to take over several popular Aussie brands,
Speaker 2: including just Genes, JJ's, Dotty and Portman's. It comes after
Speaker 2: the department store Giant announced a nine hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: million dollar acquisition of apparel brand, a clothing arm of
Speaker 2: Premier Investments. Premier said it will retain ownership over Smiggle
Speaker 2: and Peter Alexander to focus on growing the stationery and
Speaker 2: sleepwear brands. Premier and Maya shareholders will need to approve
Speaker 2: the deal before the department store can merge with apparel brands.
Speaker 2: If it goes ahead, the retail group would own more
Speaker 2: than seven hundred and eighty stores. Across Australia and New
Speaker 2: Zealand and employ more than seventeen thousand people.
Speaker 3: Israel's parliament has voted to ban the United Nations Relief
Speaker 3: and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, otherwise known as UNRA.
Speaker 3: It means the key aid body delivering aid in Kaza
Speaker 3: will not be allowed to operate in Israel, which could
Speaker 3: impact the flow of aid into the region. Earlier this year,
Speaker 3: Israel claimed UNRASTAFF had been involved in Hamas's attack on
Speaker 3: October seven. A UN investigation found nine staff members who
Speaker 3: have since been sacked, were involved in the attacks. Australian
Speaker 3: Foreign Minister Pennywong has urged Israel to reconsider the ban.
Speaker 2: And finally, today's good news, a record number of women
Speaker 2: have been elected to Japan's lower House of Parliament. Seventy
Speaker 2: three female candidates were successful after Sunday's election, which means
Speaker 2: women will now make up about sixteen percent of Japan's
Speaker 2: House of Representatives. That's compared to a global average of
Speaker 2: twenty seven percent. The main opposition party in Japan, the
Speaker 2: CDPJ saw the most women elected of all the parties,
Speaker 2: with thirty female candidates securing a seat.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with the Deep Dive after this short break.
Speaker 2: Sam, I'd say it's fairly rare for a book to
Speaker 2: make such a splash before it's even been released. So
Speaker 2: this book was only released yesterday. Joe Asen's new book.
Speaker 3: Hang On, No Silly Questions The Daily Ores September twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three.
Speaker 1: See wall to wall coverage of that book too.
Speaker 3: Senat quies the whole lot not. This book's probably a
Speaker 3: little more controversial.
Speaker 2: It is, so just to give you a bit of context,
Speaker 2: this book released by Joe Aston yesterday is called The
Speaker 2: Chairman's Lounge, and over the weekend we saw the Nine
Speaker 2: Papers release an excerpt of that book. And in that
Speaker 2: excerpt it was published in the Good Weekend, there were
Speaker 2: a whole lot of I guess, allegations you'd say, that
Speaker 2: were leveled at the Prime Minister and at the CEO
Speaker 2: or the former CEO of Quantus, Alan Joyce. And since
Speaker 2: that excerpt was published, the story has completely taken on
Speaker 2: a life of its own.
Speaker 3: It's really important to understand who Joe Aston is because
Speaker 3: I think that has a bit to do with the
Speaker 3: why it's being reported so widely as well. Give me
Speaker 3: a sense of who this author.
Speaker 2: Is so Joe Aston is not just an author. He
Speaker 2: is a journalist. He worked for the Australian Financial Review
Speaker 2: for over a decade. He resigned last year after, as
Speaker 2: I said, a fairly long stint, during which time he
Speaker 2: wrote a column called Rear Window, and a lot of
Speaker 2: that column was dedicated to, I guess, uncovering and exposing
Speaker 2: diff different areas of Australian political and media life.
Speaker 3: One of the worst things for somebody to wake up
Speaker 3: to was knowing you were going to be in rear
Speaker 3: Window that day exactly.
Speaker 2: And someone that knew that reality all too well was
Speaker 2: Alan Joyce. Because towards the end of his tenure, Joe
Speaker 2: Aston spent a lot of his journalistic time covering Quantus,
Speaker 2: and if you think back, it was during the time
Speaker 2: where it was COVID, there were layoffs, there was all
Speaker 2: of the stuff around mass cancelations and flight credits, and
Speaker 2: Joe Aston really, i'd say, led the way in the
Speaker 2: coverage on those sorts of issues.
Speaker 1: Tensions between Joe.
Speaker 2: Aston and Quantus continued to grow and grow and grow,
Speaker 2: and then they boiled over to the point where Quantus
Speaker 2: actually stripped the AFI from its lounges and in flight
Speaker 2: Wi Fi services back in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: I remember they literally took out the hard copies of
Speaker 3: the paper.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, And so I think it's fair to say,
Speaker 2: to summarize why Joe Aston gets the response that he
Speaker 2: does is that he's quite a controversial journalist, a very
Speaker 2: distinct style and way of writing. And to zero in
Speaker 2: on it, Joe asked, is one of the most read
Speaker 2: journalists in this country. And so when we realized he
Speaker 2: was publishing a book, I think everyone expected that there
Speaker 2: would be a lot there.
Speaker 3: And then when the excerpt of the book ran in
Speaker 3: the nine newspapers over the weekends, this curiosity as to
Speaker 3: what was going to be in the book was even
Speaker 3: more accentuated just on that piece alone in the paper.
Speaker 3: What did we learn?
Speaker 2: So in that excerpt it was revealed that Anthony Albanesi,
Speaker 2: of course the Prime Minister, received more than twenty flight
Speaker 2: upgrades between two thousand and nine and twenty nineteen. Family
Speaker 2: members accompanied him on some of these trips, and many
Speaker 2: of them were personal. The book, citing anonymous Quantus Insiders,
Speaker 2: claims Albanizi asked Joyce directly to upgrade his flights, while
Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi was in the transport portfolio. So the suggestion
Speaker 2: there is that Albanzi, as a politician, had a direct
Speaker 2: line to the head of Australia's biggest airline, which made
Speaker 2: up obviously a big part of his portfolio at that time,
Speaker 2: and that he was using that direction line allegedly to
Speaker 2: ask for personal upgrades. It's important to note that Albanzi
Speaker 2: had previously declared his own personal flights and his membership
Speaker 2: to the quantas Chairman's Lounge, which is the name of
Speaker 2: the book, which is a VIP area. You get food,
Speaker 2: you get special treatment, it's a place where all MP's
Speaker 2: and senators are offered access. So that's not really in
Speaker 2: contention here. What's more in contention is how these upgrades
Speaker 2: came about and whether or not they were disclosed. Aston
Speaker 2: also claims that Alberanzi didn't declare efforts to get his
Speaker 2: son Nathan a membership to the Chairman's Lounge. That was
Speaker 2: first reported by the AFI a little while ago, so
Speaker 2: that's not new information, but that was also included in
Speaker 2: this excerpt. I think if we're to zoom out and
Speaker 2: try to understand why this is such a hot political topic,
Speaker 2: what's being claimed here by Aston is that Anthony ALBERIZI
Speaker 2: was a political asset four Quantas. So I'm just going
Speaker 2: to directly quote asked in here. He says it was
Speaker 2: a slice of fortune that fueled Quantus as Hubrius, the
Speaker 2: new Prime Minister, was an asset that the airline had
Speaker 2: been developing for fifteen years, a transport minister who had
Speaker 2: been upgraded to.
Speaker 1: The top job.
Speaker 3: Okay, so what Joe Aston is trying to highlight, I
Speaker 3: guess is not necessarily just the fact that Anthony Alberzi
Speaker 3: allegedly got these upgrades from economy to business class or
Speaker 3: you know, some free pajamas, but that it signified a
Speaker 3: close relationship between the head of Australi's biggest airline and
Speaker 3: the future Prime minister, which could have gone both ways.
Speaker 3: That favorable decisions could have been made for Quantus by
Speaker 3: Aberenezi and upgrades could have been granted by Quantas the
Speaker 3: other way exactly.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what goes to the heart of
Speaker 2: why this has become.
Speaker 1: Such a political issue.
Speaker 2: And I think that it's not, as you said, a
Speaker 2: matter of free pajamas, but it's what it could signify
Speaker 2: if these allegations are true, sure, and that's certainly what
Speaker 2: the Opposition is talking about this week. So the Coalition
Speaker 2: has been really quick to jump on this one. We've
Speaker 2: had Opposition leader Peter Dunn and call it a bit
Speaker 2: strange that Albinizi allegedly asked for these upgrades. He said,
Speaker 2: it's a strange arrangement when you can pick up the
Speaker 2: phone to the CEO and ask, as Transport minister for
Speaker 2: an upgrade for your arrangements. Duddin did admit that he
Speaker 2: had benefited himself from flight upgrades since being elected to
Speaker 2: parliament in two thousand and one, which he said have
Speaker 2: also been declared the coalition's transport spokespersons and at a
Speaker 2: Bridget Mackenzie told reporters that the Senate should set up
Speaker 2: an inquiry into the reported flight upgrades. She said there
Speaker 2: are serious questions which only mister Joyce and the Prime
Speaker 2: Minister can answer. At the time when she was saying
Speaker 2: that she claimed she hadn't received a quantus upgrade, but
Speaker 2: shortly after she did issue a statement confirming she had
Speaker 2: previously received an upgrade and had publicly declared it. But
Speaker 2: broadly the Coalition is going in with we need to
Speaker 2: understand more about what's happened here and if something has
Speaker 2: happened that was not meant to or that was not declared,
Speaker 2: they want further investigation.
Speaker 3: So one other aspect to this story that the Opposition,
Speaker 3: particularly Bridget mackenzie, is seeking to understand more and calling
Speaker 3: for US an inquiry into is a decision by the
Speaker 3: Albanese government in twenty twenty three to block a bid
Speaker 3: by Qatar Airways, so a direct competitor of Quantas, to
Speaker 3: increase the number of flights that they were operating in
Speaker 3: and around Australia. I've noticed a particular point that Bridget
Speaker 3: mackenzie is highlighting is the decision of the Abenese government
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three to block Qatar Airways from increasing
Speaker 3: the number of routes that they flew in and around Australia.
Speaker 3: She said during the week, both Prime Minister Anthony Abernesi
Speaker 3: and Transport Minister Catherine King have to come clean on
Speaker 3: whether there was any pressure from the Prime Minister or
Speaker 3: his office to assist Quantas and its partner Emirates in
Speaker 3: blocking Qatar Airways application for these flights.
Speaker 2: Again, that is just an allegation that is being made
Speaker 2: by the opposition and there has been no confirmation from
Speaker 2: the Prime Minister that anything like that did take place there.
Speaker 3: Well, it's quite the contrary, right, The Prime Minister has
Speaker 3: come out very directly against these allegations.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So to the point of the upgrades, Alberanzi has said
Speaker 2: that he publicly declared everything. He said that he only
Speaker 2: had direct discussions with Alan Joyce over two official flights
Speaker 2: and that those were publicly disclosed at the time. Here's
Speaker 2: Anthony Alberze speaking yesterday on the matter.
Speaker 4: All of my flights have been declared in an appropriate way,
Speaker 4: just as Peter Dutton declared his flights or some of
Speaker 4: his flights. There is a difference between both of us.
Speaker 4: My flights were commercial with Quantus or Virgin or Emirates.
Speaker 4: I didn't have to declare any flights on private jets
Speaker 4: owned by billionaires like Gina rein Hart because I haven't
Speaker 4: engaged in it.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, ministers in Albanese's government and suddenly heard a bit
Speaker 2: of it there have been really trying to flip the
Speaker 2: script a bit here.
Speaker 1: In recent days.
Speaker 2: We've had Senior Minister Murray what calling the story unsourced
Speaker 2: rumors being put around by a journalist and has then
Speaker 2: tried to highlight that Peter Dudden accepted flights from Gina
Speaker 2: Reinhart's company and said, I think it's equally applicable to
Speaker 2: ask questions of Peter Dudden about what influenced Gina ryan
Speaker 2: Hart has over his policies in response to the free
Speaker 2: flights that he experienced. So the government's really trying to
Speaker 2: read direct traffic into having a conversation more broadly about
Speaker 2: who and what politicians accept in their positions of power.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if that storyline is going to
Speaker 2: stick per se. I think that there is a lot
Speaker 2: of attention here on Anthony Albanesi and what happens next.
Speaker 3: It seems like every couple of months there's a news
Speaker 3: story from across the political spectrum about allegations of conflict
Speaker 3: of interest and this recurring idea of how do we
Speaker 3: know if our politicians have integrity? And we know that
Speaker 3: trust levels in politicians are dropping lower and lower, and
Speaker 3: it seems to be a really strong theme of the
Speaker 3: last decade, and it sounds like into the future. That's
Speaker 3: all we've got time for on today's episode of The
Speaker 3: Daily Os. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love you
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Speaker 3: send it to a friend. We'll be back again in
Speaker 3: your ears tomorrow morning. Until then, have a great day.
Speaker 3: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 3: Bunjelung Chalcotin woman from Gadighl Country.
Speaker 4: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 4: the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 4: all Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island and nations. We pay
Speaker 4: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 4: past and present.