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<docID>332558</docID>
<postdate>2024-11-07 08:39:14</postdate>
<headline>Mckenzie admits to 16 undisclosed upgrades</headline>
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<p><img class="size-full wp-image-200644" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/38411867_1878250935577705_1788744898283831296_n-1-e1730928989217.jpg" alt="" width="870" height="580" /></p>
<caption>Bridget McKenzie... acknowledged her â€œdeficiencies 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 apologiseâ€.</caption>
<p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Michelle Grattan</strong> in Canberra</span></p>
<p><strong>Opposition transport spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie has admitted to receiving 16 undisclosed upgrades, including on five personal flights to or from New Zealand.</strong></p>
<p>The five NZ flights, with Qantas, were between 2016 and 2018, when her boyfriend was NZ then-parliamentarian David Bennett.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Other upgrades included one from Qantas in January 2015, and seven Virgin domestic upgrades between 2015 and 2019.</p>
<p>After Anthony Albaneseâ€™s upgrades became an issue following publication of Joe Astonâ€™s book The Chairmanâ€™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.</p>
<p>When it became clear the opposition was about to be embarrassed by the McKenzie record, it pulled back from pursuing the upgrades issue.</p>
<p>In a Wednesday statement, McKenzie acknowledged her â€œdeficiencies 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 apologiseâ€.</p>
<p>She said she had never sought free upgrades.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/243050/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-grattan-20316">Michelle Grattan</a>, Professorial Fellow, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-canberra-865">University of Canberra.</a> Republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation.</a></em></p>
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