A secretive VIP booking unit was at the centre of a decades-long campaign to make Qantas Australia’s most influential company.
Around the corporate affairs offices of Qantas Airways they used to joke that the airline should be known as the House of 10,000 favours.
Qantas was privatised between 1992 and 1995. When Strong, a former mining lobbyist, was about to be appointed Qantas chief executive in 1993 he was They were allocated into higher classes of customers, which meant they got better seats, and more frequent flyer and status points. Given most members were travelling for work, they effectively received free flights for their family members. Qantas CEOs personally vetted the list.
One Qantas executive worked out that a senior minister in the Howard government was fond of sausage rolls. He arranged for them to be served in the Chairman’s Lounge every time the House of Representatives finished work for the fortnight and MPs flew home.Gratuities were part of a bigger plan to make Qantas’ interests central to Australia’s. The company sponsored every football code and most major artistic events. It recruited Indigenous staff, and put dot-paintings on its aircraft.
Any minister who defied the airline, say by allowing greater competition from foreigners, risked being portrayed as anti-Australian. Decisions that might affect the airline but did not require cabinet approval would be referred to the prime minister’s chief of staff, or even to the prime minister directly, he said, ensuring they were subjected to high-level political assessment.
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