Five Brisbane councillors, in their roles as committee chairmen, have been allocated Qantas Club memberships for travel on council business, but lord mayor Graham Quirk has admitted he doesn’t know if the memberships are ever used for personal travel.
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At the council’s final meeting for 2018 on Tuesday afternoon, Deagon councillor Jared Cassidy (Labor) asked why the council had purchased the club memberships in the past 12 months.
Deputy mayor Adrian Schrinner and councillors David McLachlan, Amanda Cooper, Angela Owen and Peter Matic were all given the memberships.
Cr Cassidy asked if the memberships had been used for private travel at ratepayers’ expense.
“Information supplied on notice to the November 27 council meeting showed only two councillors flew on council work,” Cr Cassidy said.
Crs Quirk, Cooper and Owen declared Qantas Club memberships in their 2018 registers of interest.
A Qantas Club membership allows access to private lounges, and corporate memberships can be purchased for one or two years.
Cr Quirk said chairmen had been allocated Qantas Club memberships as “part of the package” for their role for as long as he could remember to ensure any travel they needed to take in their role was supported.
“The point I make is that this council administration has been very prudent in its travel, this administration compared to Labor,” he said.
“There’s no comparison because we have been extremely prudent.”
Cr Cassidy said the question of cost was not the point, but rather the use of Qantas Club memberships for private travel.
Cr Quirk said he was not sure if the memberships had been used for private travel.
“I don’t know the answer to that question and I would have to ask each of the chairmen individually if they have travelled privately,” he said.
“What I do know is this the Qantas Club membership is part of the entitlement in terms of the chairman’s role.
“We do know we are very prudent in travel costs.”
