Blundering Australian political staffer sparks an international incident as he leaves secretive documents on a PLANE in Qatar
It has all the makings of an international spy thriller: a missing satchel containing confidential cabinet documents, an exotic location, and a looming government decision to block a Middle Eastern airline from expanding its Australian footprint.
Little wonder then that the case of a bag of missing Cabinet papers sent the Albanese government into a flurry of conspiratorial activity.
According to the political news site Capital Brief, which was first to break the news of the baffling mystery, a staffer for Labor Minister Murray Watt accidentally left the papers on a plane while transferring through the Qatari capital of Doha last July.
Despite alerting airline officials that the locked cabinet bag had been left onboard within moments of disembarking, staff at Hamad International Airport said they were unable to locate the satchel nor its secretive contents.
The blunder then became a matter of international intrigue with Watt’s office altering Australia’s embassy in Doha that it had lost the confidential papers. The embassy also then failed to locate the missing bag.
According to Capital Brief, the timing of the incident raised suspicions within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade because it occurred just one week before the Albanese government announced it would deny Qatar Airways bid to launch and 28 additional flights to Australia.
The controversial decision sparked widespread backlash amid accusations the ban offered an unfair commercial advantage to rivals Qantas, which had lobbied extensively against Qatar Airway’s application.
A Labor staffer sparked an international incident after secret documents he was carrying went missing while he was changing flights at Doha’s Hamad International Airport in Qatar (pictured)
The concerning incident raised suspicions within government circles given it occurred on the eve of a major announcement about Qatar’s big to increase its footprint in Australia
There is no suggestion that the bag contained any documents referencing to the Qatar decision – or any other international issue – nor that it was snatched by Qatari officials.
Mr Watt, the then agricultural minister, and his advisors had been returning to Australia at the time after a flying visit to India and Italy on government business.
Capital Brief said the documents were connected to domestic agricultural issues and were actually left on an Indian airliner and not a plane belonging to Qatar’s state-owned carrier.
Watt’s office was contacted for comment over the embarrassing bungle. Government sources told Daily Mail Australia the saga had been kept well under wraps within country’s corridors of power.
Murray Watt was Labor’s agriculture minister at the time of the embarrassing bungle
Qatar Airways has engaged in a little, unrelated intrigue in a bid to bypass the government landing restriction, with revelations this week it was set to buy a 25 per cent stake in Virgin Australia.
Virgin Australia revealed the Middle Eastern airline was set to by a 25 per cent share in its company.
The deal, which will be subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, would allow flights from Australia’s four largest cities to Doha, under a plane and crew lease agreement.
Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia have been aligned since 2022
In a statement, Virgin said the proposed minority ownership stake would create ‘more choice and better value for Australians’.
‘Domestic competition in Australia is dependent on Virgin Australia thriving through the inevitable ups and downs of aviation.’
The deal would be done by way of the Gulf airline acquiring 25 per cent of Virgin owner, Bain Capital’s stake.
‘This partnership brings the missing piece to Virgin Australia’s longer-term strategy and is a huge vote of confidence in Australian aviation,’ Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said.
