- Ministerial staffer left confidential papers on plane after flight to the Middle East
- The Australian embassy has reportedly been alerted after a ‘suspicious’ incident
It has all the hallmarks of an international spy thriller: a missing bag of confidential cabinet documents, an exotic location and a looming government decision to block a Middle Eastern airline from expanding its Australian footprint.
It is no wonder that the case of a bag of missing cabinet papers sent the Albanian government into a flurry of conspiratorial activity.
The political news site reports this Capital shortwho first broke news of the baffling mystery, an aide to Labor Minister Murray Watt accidentally left the papers on a plane while traveling through the Qatari capital Doha last July.
Despite airline officials being alerted that the locked suitcase had been left on board within moments of disembarking, Hamad International Airport staff said they were unable to locate the bag and its classified contents.
The blunder then became a matter of international intrigue when Watt’s office changed the Australian embassy in Doha so that it had lost the confidential papers. Even then, the embassy failed to locate the missing bag.
According to Capital shortThe timing of the incident raised suspicions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade as it occurred just a week before the Albanian government announced it would reject Qatar Airways’ bid to launch 28 additional flights to Australia.
The controversial decision sparked widespread backlash amid accusations that the ban gave an unfair commercial advantage to rivals Qantas, which had lobbied extensively against Qatar Airways’ application.
A Labor worker caused an international incident after secret documents he was carrying were lost while changing flights at Doha’s Hamad International Airport in Qatar (pictured)
The incident in question aroused suspicion in government circles as it occurred on the eve of a major announcement regarding Qatar’s major expansion into Australia.
There is no indication that the bag contained documents referring to the Qatar decision – or any other international issue – nor that it was snatched by Qatari officials.
Mr Watt, then Agriculture Minister, and his advisers had returned to Australia after flying to India and Italy on government business.
Capital Brief said the documents were related to domestic agricultural issues and were actually left on an Indian plane and not a plane belonging to Qatar’s state-owned carrier.
Watt’s office was contacted for comment about the embarrassing affair. Government sources told Daily Mail Australia the story had been well hidden within the country’s power lines.
Murray Watt was Labor Agriculture Secretary at the time of the embarrassing row
Qatar Airways has engaged in a minor, unrelated intrigue in an attempt to get around the government’s landing restriction, with revelations this week that it planned to buy a 25 percent stake in Virgin Australia.
Virgin Australia announced that the Middle Eastern airline would acquire a 25 percent stake in its company.
The deal, which is subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board, would allow flights from Australia’s four largest cities to Doha, under a leasing arrangement for aircraft and crew.
Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia have been aligned since 2022
In a statement, Virgin said the proposed minority stake would create “more choice and better value for Australians”.
“Domestic competition in Australia depends on Virgin Australia thriving through the inevitable ups and downs of aviation.”
The deal would be achieved by the Gulf airline taking over 25 percent of the shares of Virgin, Virgin’s owner.
“This partnership delivers the missing piece to Virgin Australia’s longer-term strategy and represents a huge vote of confidence in Australian aviation,” said Jayne Hrdlicka, CEO of Virgin Australia.