Some of Australia’s top regulators – including the competition boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb and corporate watchdog chair Joseph Longo – are members of Qantas’s invitation-only Chairman’s Lounge, a luxurious and controversial perk the airline gives to influential policymakers.
Five of the seven commissioners of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are members, including Cass-Gottlieb who is the chair, the regulator said in a statement.
The competition regulator is currently pursuing Qantas over allegations it sold tickets for thousands of flights that it had already cancelled.
At the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic), Longo, and his two deputy chairs have access to the complimentary club, Asic confirmed.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) said six of its board members and senior executives – including the chief executive, Pip Spence – had been gifted membership to the Chairman’s Lounge and/or the Virgin Beyond lounges.
“Some of these memberships have carried over from previous roles,” a Casa spokesperson said in a statement.
Guardian Australia does not suggest that the ACCC, Asic and Casa members of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge have any conflict of interest.
Known as the most exclusive club in Australia, lounge access is being heavily scrutinised amid a broader question over whether Qantas enjoys outsized influence over decision-makers in Australia – an allegation the airline and Albanese government deny.
The debate has been stirred by the government’s recent refusal of expanded air rights to key rival carrier Qatar Airways, at a time when more competition would put downward pressure on airfares.
The disclosures to Guardian Australia about Chairman’s Lounge membership show that Qantas’s soft diplomacy reaches far deeper into the corridors of power than previously known, stretching across the political, corporate and legal industries, as well as the top ranks of the public service.
Lounge membership is infamously confidential, adding to the mystique of a facility designed to be an oasis tucked away from the busyness of an airport. Members can get a complimentary on-demand medium-rare steak, while those outside pay for overpriced hamburgers.
The national carrier has been in the middle of a political storm after it generated huge profits at the same time as customer complaints surged. On Wednesday, it lost its high court bid to overturn a ruling that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handler jobs during the pandemic.
Separately, the ACCC court action over alleged ticket sales to cancelled flights helped spark the early retirement of the Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce last week.
Cass-Gottlieb said she wanted the regulator’s court action, if successful, to deliver a record penalty on Qantas of hundreds of millions of dollars to scare other companies that had stopped fearing such fines.
The ACCC and Asic recipients of Qantas hospitality would typically report their memberships to the treasurer, as per disclosure rules.
Politicians from all the major parties, as well as independents, also have access to the lounge, which is disclosed in their parliamentary interests declarations.
The Australian Financial Review reported last month that Anthony Albanese’s son, Nathan, has access to the lounge. News.com.au reported this week that all current high court judges are also members.
Some regulators, and politicians, also enjoy the facilities at Virgin’s equivalent invitation-only club.
With Elias Visontay
