Exclusive: Disclosures to Guardian Australia show airline’s soft diplomacy reaches far deeper into corridors of power than previously known

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Some of Australia’s top regulators – including the competition boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb, and corporate watchdog Joseph Longo – are members of Qantas’s invitation-only Chairman’s Lounge, a luxurious and controversial perk the airline gives to influential policymakers.

Five of the seven commissioners of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are members, including Cass-Gottlieb who is the chair, the regulator said in a statement.

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