PM calms colleagues, hits out at media over Qantas saga at private meeting

Anthony Albanese reportedly met secretly with Labor MPs to assure them he was not harassing Qantas bosses for upgrades, but one unimpressed attendee called the exercise a ‘massive shake-up’.

Unnamed MPs are said to have said that Nine newspapers that Mr Albanese said the media would soon lose interest in the alleged scandal, even as they held Labor “to a higher standard” than the Coalition on honesty.

‘The same thing happened with Kevin [Rudd]same for Julia [Gillard]then Bill [Shorten]now me,” an MP quoted Mr Albanese as saying.

Mr Albanese is said to have reassured troops that his office had thoroughly checked his details before releasing a statement on Wednesday afternoon denying that he had called former Qantas boss Alan Joyce to ask for free flight upgrades.

The Prime Minister also reportedly denied a Sky News story that the upgrade requests were against former Qantas executive Andrew Parker.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has reportedly defended Mr Albanese, saying any changes to accounting entries were made in the same way as any other MP.

However, an unnamed MP said Nine Albanese’s speech was “a huge upset” and called it another example of the Prime Minister’s Office failing to “immediately shut down a damaging story” and for days avoid questions.

Mr Albanese is said to have told his colleagues in parliament that spending scandals received media attention for days, with mudslinging on both sides, before they disappeared.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton and the flights of other coalition MPs have come under scrutiny.

Mr Dutton has admitted his office asked mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s team to travel from Queensland to Sydney and back in 2022 for a memorial to the Bali bombing.

There’s more to come