By aviation writer Scott Mayman
INDEPENDENT ACT senator David Pocock has walked away from complimentary membership of the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.
He’s also calling it quits from the airline’s rival Beyond Lounge with Virgin.
Until recently, politicians and public service employers were offered invitations to the exclusive lounges with both airlines.
Politicians have since been stepping away from the gift in the wake of scandals and questions about whether Qantas has had any influence on government decisions.
Senator Pocock has now removed the Chairman’s Lounge membership from his “Register of Interests”.
The upside for the senator is that since he’s based in Canberra, he doesn’t fly as much as the other federal politicians, especially during parliamentary sitting weeks.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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