ASIC highflyers see no conflicts in Qantas Chairman’s Lounge

The most senior members of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission are members of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge but don’t regard that membership as problematic.

ASIC chair, Joe Longo has told Senate Estimates that members of the ASIC executive had declared their membership of the Lounge and that ASIC had a policy dealing with conflicts of interest

“We don’t consider membership of the Lounge a material impediment to the discharge of our duties,” Longo said.

ACT independent senator, David Pocock had asked Longo whether, if members of the ASIC executive, had received flight upgrades from Qantas they would declare them.

Longo said that he believed, if the upgrades occurred, that would be the case.

The ASIC chairman also claimed that he was not aware of any company other than Qantas which provided similar benefits to the ASIC board.

Senator Pocock posed the question to Longo that if some issue arose for ASIC involving Qantas whether the chairman, deputy chairs and commissioners would have to declare a conflict of interest.

Longo said that, in fact, issues had come up in the last year or so involving Qantas.

“And I don’t think and the commission’s view is that membership of a lounge is without more a conflict of interest that would require any of us to recuse ourselves from a decision relating to Qantas,” he said.

Pocock asked Longo whether he had received discounts or benefits from any other companies and said that it was not just about conflicts of interest but the perception of conflicts of interest.