Peter Dutton defends taxpayer-funded trip to Justin Hemmes mansion as ‘not a party’ as new claims emerge
Peter Dutton has defended his decision to fly from Queensland to Sydney for a fundraiser at Justin Hemmes’ mansion, as new details about the controversial trip emerge.
Federal Election
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EXCLUSIVE
Peter Dutton’s office held discussions with a second Liberal donor ahead of his controversial taxpayer-funded trip to Sydney to billionaire Justin Hemmes’ mansion ahead of Cyclone Alfred.
Mr Dutton has broken his silence on the controversy this morning, insisting it was “not a party” and slamming the Labor Party for “using that for political advantage in a time of natural disaster”.
He defended the trip on the grounds that it also included talks with religious leaders, namely the Metropolitan of the Antiochian Christian Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
But news.com.au can reveal that the man organising the meeting with the Greek Orthodox Church leaders, DeiCorp Group chairman and property developer Fouad Deiri, made contact with Mr Dutton’s office ahead of the meeting about a potential donation.
“While a potential donation was discussed in February, it was in no way linked to the meeting with His Eminence on March 5,” his spokesman said.
“The sole purpose of the meeting was for Mr Deiri, who is a board member of the Archdiocese, to introduce Mr Dutton to The Antiochian Orthodox Archbishop.
“Requests from political parties for political donations are received from time to time. If donations are made, they will be done so in full compliance of the regulations governing donations and disclosures.”
However, to date, he insisted that no donation had been offered, despite the preliminary discussions.
“Neither Mr Deiri nor DeiCorp has made a political donation to Mr Dutton or the Liberal Party.
“Not. One. Cent.
“If such a donation was made, it would be disclosed in accordance with the relevant regulations,’’ he said.
How the trip unfolded
The Liberal leader was in Brisbane on Tuesday morning where he gave a press conference at Queensland’s emergency services HQ in Kedron about Cyclone Alfred.
But he then left the HQ before 9am to catch a flight to Sydney for the fundraiser and a meeting with a Sydney-based Archbishop.
After the controversy broke, he then did not conduct any press interviews or respond to questions for a few days before surfacing in Brisbane on Sunday.
A spokesman defended the plane trip on the grounds he had other events in Sydney at the same time, including talks with a Greek Orthodox Archbishop, and said the travel was within the rules.
Liberal fundraiser with billionaire ‘not a party’
Mr Dutton defended the trip this morning as no different to the fundraisers Mr Albanese would also be attending around Australia.
“Peter, I’m going to ask you, you came under some criticism for going to a Justin Hemmes party last week, leaving Queensland. Why did you go to that?” Sky News host Peter Stefanovic asked on Monday.
“Well, Pete, it wasn’t a party. It was a fundraising dinner, and the Prime Minister and I are doing them around the country at the moment,” he said.
“I’d received a briefing in the morning, went down. I had diary commitments, including lunch with an Archbishop and a number of meetings otherwise in Sydney.
“I flew home on the first flight on Wednesday morning, back into my electorate, and the event obviously hadn’t started by then, didn’t start until Friday.
“So, I think people who are using that for political advantage in the time of a natural disaster, frankly, that’s a poorer reflection on them than it is on me, and I think people recognise that.”
Last week, a spokesman for Mr Dutton said all of the travel was within the rules.
But speaking 4BC this morning, Treasurer Jim Chalmers – who was also at Kedron on Tuesday morning for a 9am briefing before Mr Dutton left – was asked about the story.
“What do you make of this? According to the AFR, Peter Dutton being briefed by the premier on Tuesday. He hops on an aeroplane. He heads to Justin Hemmes place for a party in Sydney?” 4BC host Peter Fegan said.
“Look, that would be disappointing if it’s true. That’s for Peter Dutton to explain,” the Treasurer replied.
“I went to that briefing on Tuesday at Kedron, and he was leaving as I was arriving.
“I’m not sure if he was off to Sydney to do a fundraiser. That’s for him to explain.”
His Eminence, the Most Reverend Metropolitan Basilios
News.com.au contacted Mr Dutton’s office on Tuesday, March 4, about whether he had jetted to Sydney to attend a fundraiser this week and his office indicated the earlier event in the day was not a fundraiser.
The earlier event Mr Dutton attended was at the home of His Eminence, the Most Reverend Metropolitan Basilios.
A spokesman did not elaborate that he did attend a fundraiser at Justin Hemmes’ historic mansion ‘The Hermitage’ a few hours later.
His spokesman said Mr Dutton did not need to attend the major 9am cyclone briefing because he had been briefed by the Queensland Premier and emergency services personnel earlier that morning.
Challenges ahead for Peter Dutton
Meanwhile, Newspoll has hinted at challenges ahead for Peter Dutton.
Despite the fact he’s beating the Prime Minister 51:49 on a two party preferred basis, killing Labor on the primary vote and the bookies backing the Coalition for a win, Peter Dutton is still well short of the seats he needs to form government.
The latest Newspoll, published exclusively in The Australian, suggests the Liberals are on track to pick up seven seats based on a uniform swing of 3 per cent.
That’s a solid result for a first opposition leader but there’s a huge gap between the amount of seats he needs to win a government, which is closer to 20 seats.
Of course, swings on election night are rarely uniform. But a swing of 3 per cent as suggested is not enough to form a majority government.
There’s nothing to stop the Liberal leader getting there by the time of the election in May, but the polls suggest he’s far from home and hosed and has some work to do during the campaign.
But the results reaffirms the election likely to be a race between the two major parties over who could form a minority government with support of independents and minor parties.
And the latest Newspoll provides a giant clue on why that’s the case.
Voters doubt Coalition is ready to govern again
Newspoll warns that the majority of voters right now don’t believe the Coalition is ready to govern after a single term in opposition.
Around 45 per cent of voters believe that a Dutton-led Coalition is ready to govern against 55 per cent who do not believe they are ready.
There was also a significant gender divide with a majority of male voters saying they were confident that the Coalition was ready to govern, while a significant majority of female voters were not.
Among men, 51 per cent were confident compared with just 39 per cent of women.
Younger voters have the biggest doubts
Intriguingly, the doubts about a Dutton-led Coalition team being ready to govern were strongest among younger voters, but almost equally so among the critical 35 to 49-year-old demographic, which is regarded as critical to swinging election outcomes.
Among this group of voters, 61 per cent had little or no confidence in the Coalition’s readiness to govern, while the 18 to 34-year-old demographic was at 63 per cent.
Even the over 65s had some wobbles in their confidence in the Coalition’s ability to return to power.
A majority of voters aged between 50 and 64 years – 53 per cent – had big concerns over whether Peter Dutton’s team was ready.
Bad news for Labor
But the bad news for the Albanese Government is there’s no poll that says he is going to win a majority either.
Even if the Prime Minister only lost seven seats, he would be forced into minority government and forced to negotiate with the independents to retain his job.
Labor’s primary vote remains woeful. Primary support for both major parties has lifted, with Labor on 32 per cent and the Coalition on 39 per cent.
This isn’t far off Labor’s result at the last election, but represents a swing to the Liberals of three percentage points.
The Greens remain on 12 per cent, with most of those preferences likely to flow Labor’s way despite the low primary vote for the ALP.
Speaking this morning on the Today show, Mr Albanese said his focus remains on the floods, not the election that he announced on Friday would be delayed until April.
The Prime Minister had locked in April 12 as the election date, with campaign strategists booking advertising spends on Sunday night and sending campaign staff to HQ before Cyclone Alfred changed all that.
“I’m focused on helping Australians. Not focused on votes,” Mr Albanese said.
“And you know that I did get a bit frustrated with people continuing to (speculate) I think governments should serve their full term. You know, we’re governing and we’re governing in a way that’s completely put politics aside.
“We’re just about helping people because that’s what people expect. And that’s what they deserve, most importantly.”
Peter Dutton under the microscope
The latest poll follows Peter Dutton being exposed to scrutiny over his share-trading during the global financial crisis and his decision to leave Queensland for a quick trip to Sydney on Tuesday ahead of Cyclone Alfred to attend a fundraiser at billionaire Justin Hemmes’ mansion.
Perhaps more significantly, the latest Newspoll is the first since the Reserve Bank delivered a 0.25 percentage point cut to interest rates following its February board meeting.
It also follows Labor seeking to make the future of Medicare an election issue by rolling out an $8 billion plan to restore bulk billing in many parts of Australia.
Newspoll shows he has suffered a fall in his approval rating with Mr Albanese gaining ground with voters on who they regard as their preferred prime minister.
The big question is whether or not Mr Albanese can build on these improvements during the campaign or if they are a blip and Labor starts to go backwards again between now and the May election.
The latest Newspoll was conducted by The Australian between March 3 and 7 with 1255 voters throughout Australia interviewed online.
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