Going on seven months, we’ve been struck by the sheer (and literal) distance that Peter Dutton would travel to attend events held by Gina Rinehart. It seemed obvious that Dutton’s grovelling at the side of the country’s richest person would bear tangible fruit. Now it has.

Rinehart hosted two private political fundraisers to directly assist the opposition leader’s tilt at the government at her private homes in Queensland last month, according to an invitation for the events.