Nathan Albanese Qantas Chairman’s Lounge: Three questions faced by the Prime Minister and airline over exclusive pass

Serious questions have been raised to Anthony Albanese after his 22-year-old son was granted access to Qantas’s highly-exclusive Chairman’s Lounge.

Nathan Albanese has been granted access to the invitation-only suite where he will rub shoulders with Australia’s top CEOs, A-list celebrities and politicians.

Nathan is the son of the Prime Minister and Mr Albanese’s ex-wife Carmel Tebbutt with his membership at the Qantas lounge coming under intense public scrutiny.

Three questions that are yet to be answered by the Prime Minister or Qantas are whether the pass was gifted by Qantas, why it wasn’t declared by Mr Albanese and whether the pass was granted for security purposes. 

Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston, who first broke the story, told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that there was a conflict of interest at play on Thursday. 

‘It’s something that should be disclosed,’ he said.

‘The only reason that the gift is offered and accepted is because he’s the son of the prime minister and the prime minister is a public official who, with his cabinet members, is supposed to regulate the airline in an effective way.’ 

‘And the government isn’t effectively regulating Qantas, I think consumers can see that quite plainly.’ 

‘Is it some kind of coincidence that Qantas has an absolute rail’s run of the regulatory environment.’ 

Mr Aston referred to how Australian Competition and Consumer Competition was ‘defunded from monitoring airline pricing’ despite requesting further funding. 

He added that this issue wasn’t exclusive to Mr Albanese as he claimed that politicians from both the Coalition and Labor were historically under Qantas’ thumb. 

He referred to the benefits the carrier gets over other airlines as a result of getting cosy with the government of the day. 

‘This is a multigenerational thing, politicians have always been in the pocket of Qantas,’ Mr Aston said.

‘Every side of politics gives Qantas whatever it wants.’ 

‘There always seem to be one rule for Qantas and one rule for anyone else.’ 

The invitation-only Chairman’s Lounge is so exclusive that Qantas only recently acknowledged its very existence on its website.

There are six of them at airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, discretely hidden away from the riff-raff.

Members can enjoy plush leather sofas, food from a buffet or a la carte menu, a bar that is always open and, above all, peace and quiet.

It’s believed outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce personally curates the Chairman’s Lounge membership list. 

Mr Aston had asked both Qantas and the Prime Minister’s office who had arranged for Mr Albanese’s son to become a member of this top-tier club but received no response.

‘Did any of them really think a university student sweeping into the Chairman’s Lounge like a lord wouldn’t stand out like dog’s balls?’, wrote Mr Aston in his column.

Despite being critical of Mr Albanese on this issue, Mr Aston was even more scathing of Qantas.

‘This is how they do it, and why Qantas gets whatever it wants from government, whenever it wants it,’ he said. 

‘It’s why no matter how poorly the company treats Australian voters, the officials that voters depend upon to keep the company accountable can be depended upon to look the other way.’ 

Mr Aston’s column claims that for the second year in a row, Qantas has received more complaints to the Australian Competition and Consumer Competition than any other company. 

It is not the first time a prime minister’s offspring has been granted an exclusive perk or privilege.

In 2014, Tony Abbott’s daughter, Frances Abbott, was awarded a chairman’s scholarship for a design degree from the Whitehouse Institute of Design.

It was revealed one of the chairman on the board of governors at the Whitehouse Institute of Design had donated to Mr Abbott while he was in office. 

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the prime minister’s office for comment.

Qantas declined to comment when approached. 

The Prime Minister’ son, Nathan, has largely kept out of the spotlight.

He was pictured hugging his father on election night last year, with the first-term PM thanking his son during his victory speech and calling him his ‘good luck charm’.

‘To my proudest achievement, my son, Nathan. Thank you, mate, for your love and support,’ the new PM said.

Back then, it was reported the pair still live together at Mr Albanese’s Marrickville home in Sydney’s inner-west.

The Labor leader revealed he speaks to his son every day regardless of where he is in the world.

‘I do have a way of making sure that I talk to my son every day, and that to me is a good-luck charm,’ he said.

‘We’re close, we live together. He also spends time at his mother’s. But I’m very proud of him. He’s developed into a very fine young man.’

The father-of-one admitted he ‘didn’t see it coming’ when former NSW deputy premier Ms Tebbutt decided to end their marriage on New Year’s Day 2019.

Nathan, had just completed his HSC exams and turned 18 when Ms Tebbutt left his father.

The pair had been in a relationship for 30 years – 19 of which were spent married – and together raised Nathan.

It is understood Nathan graduated last year after studying a degree in business and marketing at the University of Technology Sydney. 

On Saturday, it was reported that outgoing Qantas CEO Mr Joyce had sold his Federation-era mansion in one of Sydney ‘s most exclusive suburbs for a mystery price rumoured to be well above $20million.

He bought the four-bedroom sandstone house at 12 Musgrave Street in Mosman, on Sydney’s lower north shore, last March with his husband Shane Lloyd.

The pair purchased the Mosman house for $19million before giving the home’s interior a makeover with the help of design firm Levine Vokaberg.

While the exact price of the sale is unknown, a source told Domain it was well above its $20million guide.