Qantas chairmanRichard Goyder in early November 2022 toldshareholders the government’s IR changes had the power to “centralise wage negotiations” and make it harder for employers long term.

In September last year,King told ABC radio that while she routinely met all the CEOs of airlines,including Joyce,“can I absolutely make it very clear the discussions that Qantas had with me and my office have on the whole been about same job,same pay,not about this decision”.

Qantas was contacted for comment. The airline’s document tabled in parliament last September said:“Qantas meets regularly with the government,opposition and crossbench on a range of issues.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told 2GB on Thursday that the November meeting raised questions about the relationship between the prime minister and Joyce.

“They were best of friends and the prime minister was happy to tout that right up until Alan Joyce became unpopular,and it was also off the back of a decision the government made to stop Qatar getting extra access which would have driven down the price of international airfares,” he said.

“For 16 months,[Albanese has] fought against this information being released. It turns out that he did meet with Alan Joyce. Now I don’t know whether he’s misled the parliament or not,but I think there are serious questions for the prime minister to answer.”

During a heated question time debate in September last year,Albanese confirmed he had spoken with Virgin’s boss about the government’s move to block Qatar’s bid,butdenied having a conversation with any Qantas executives,including Joyce,before the Qatar decision.

Under questioning about whether he had met with Joyce,Albanese told parliament he had one “substantive conversation” on the Qatar decision,but it was not with a Qantas representative.

“I received no lobbying from Qantas on this issue,” he said at the time.

The government’s reasons for rejecting Qatar’s application came under scrutiny after King revealed thatstrip-searches of Australian women from a Qatar flight at Doha were a factor,contradicting comments she had made to thismasthead earlier when she said they were not behind the decision.

Albanese’s diary entries also reveal a private half-hour meeting with then-Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on June 16,2022,the day before the government’s first national cabinet meeting,which led to thestates receiving another $760 million in hospital funding.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis.Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.