Astonishing moment Qantas boss Alan Joyce refuses to answer five questions from senators about giving Anthony Albanese’s 23-year-old son a chairman’s lounge membership

Outgoing Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has repeatedly declined to say whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s son has been awarded Chairman’s Lounge membership.

Members of Parliament, with rare exceptions, are usually issued remote area passes at airports to avoid having to mingle with regular travelers in departure lounges.

But Nathan Albanese, the 23-year-old son of Mr Albanese and his ex-wife Carmel Tebbutt, a former NSW Labor Deputy Prime Minister, was reportedly given special treatment.

This happened when Qantas lobbied the federal government to prevent Qatar Airways from operating additional flights to Australia.

Appearing before a Senate committee in Melbourne on Monday afternoon, Mr Joyce declined to confirm whether he had discussed the matter with Anthony Albanese.

“Again, I’m not going to comment on membership in the Chairman’s Club, I have privacy concerns where we don’t want to comment on who’s in, who it’s been offered to, why they’re there,” he said.

“I won’t comment on that, confirm or deny it.”

Mr Joyce also declined to confirm whether family members of MPs had been offered free membership to the Chairman’s Lounge, after being questioned by Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne.

“Again, I will not comment on the Chairman’s Lounge, I will not comment on who is and who is not,” he said.

“There are privacy issues with that.”

Mr. Joyce refused to even say how membership in the Chairman’s Lounge is awarded.

“I’m not referring to who or who is in the lounge or by what criteria that is allowed,” he said.

Mr Joyce was also asked if Qantas was actively lobbying the Albanian government to block rival Qatar Airways from getting additional flights to Australia.

“We make statements on many of these issues,” he said. “That’s how the system works.”

Qantas announced last week that it had posted a record profit of $2.5 billion, just a year after it suffered a major loss that saw Mr Joyce post his last financial result before ending as CEO in November.

Underlying full-year pre-tax profit of $2.465 billion marked a major reversal from a loss of $1.859 billion over the 2021-2022 period before Australia reopened its borders to international travellers.

Revenue doubled from $9.1 billion to $19.8 billion in the year ended June 30, surpassing the pre-pandemic level of $17.97 billion from 2018-2019.