Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie has admitted to receiving sixteen undisclosed upgrades, including on five personal flights to or from New Zealand.
Author
- Michelle Grattan
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
The five NZ flights, with Qantas, were between 2016 and 2018, when her boyfriend was New Zealand then-parliamentarian David Bennett.
While McKenzie has been in the shadow transport portfolio since the last election, there have been three Qantas upgrades from economy to business, when she was flying on parliamentary business.
Other upgrades included one from Qantas in January 2015, and seven Virgin domestic upgrades between 2015 and 2019.
After Anthony Albanese's upgrades became an issue following publication of Joe Aston's book The Chairman's Lounge, McKenzie went strongly on the attack. Initially she denied she had had any upgrades herself. After that was seen to be wrong she wrote to the airlines asking for her details.
When it became clear the opposition was about to be embarrassed by the McKenzie record, it pulled back from pursuing the upgrades issue.
In a Wednesday statement, McKenzie acknowledged her "deficiencies in disclosing these matters do not meet the expectations of the Australian people and the parliament and were an oversight on my part, and for this I apologise".
She said she had never sought free upgrades.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
