‘Bum’: Block star Adrian Portelli unleashes on Adam Bandt over private jets

Block star Adrian Portelli has slammed Adam Bandt as a “bum” after the Greens leader’s eye-watering taxpayer-funded spending bill was exposed.

Block star Adrian Portelli has slammed Adam Bandt as a “bum” over the Greens leader’s eye-watering taxpayer-funded spending bill, which included tens of thousands of dollars on private jets for the climate change crusader.

Mr Portelli, a multi-millionaire tech entrepreneur dubbed the “Lambo guy” for his appearances on the reality home renovation show, last year copped backlash for his “obscene” display of wealth using a crane to lift his $3 million McLaren into his $39 million Melbourne penthouse.

Among the critics was Mr Bandt himself, who slammed the flamboyant businessman in a post on X in May last year. “Labor’s giving this guy a $9000 tax cut while people starve on $52 a day,” the Greens leader wrote.

But Mr Portelli hit back on Tuesday, taking aim at Mr Bandt for apparent hypocrisy in a series of Instagram Stories. “People starving on $52 and here you are using taxpayers money to pay for your private jets @adambandt,” he wrote.

It came after The Daily Telegraph revealed that the federal MP for Melbourne racked up an annual expense bill of $963,166 in 2022, not including his $314,000 salary and wages of his 21 personal staff.

Adrian Portelli has taken aim at Adam Bandt. Picture: Instagram

The spending included $23,000 on two private jets during the 2022 election campaign.

On one occasion, the Greens leader spent more than $15,000 on a private plane between Canberra and Brisbane to attend the party’s campaign launch — despite multiple airlines flying between the two destinations regularly for as little as $240, Herald Sun columnist Rita Panahi pointed out.

“It all makes sense now,” Mr Portelli wrote on Instagram. “You want me to pay more tax so that I can cover your chartered jets ya bum.”

In another post, Mr Portelli encouraged followers to heckle Mr Bandt via direct message. “He turned off comments. Lucky he can still receive DMs. Let him have it,” he wrote.

A Greens spokesman told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that “as the leader of the third-largest political party in Australia you would expect Mr Bandt would engage in extensive travel and unlike the Prime Minister and many ministers he doesn’t have access to government VIP flights”.

“All Mr Bandt’s expenditures are within entitlements,” he said.

The Greens leader racked up expenses of $960,000 in 2022. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

Independent MP Dai Le told the newspaper, “I’m shocked by the news of parliamentarians overspending and surprised by the Greens use of chartered flights when they are the party that opposed the use of fossil fuels.”

Writing in the Herald Sun on Tuesday, Panahi said one should “never stand between a socialist and a big fat pile of someone else’s money”.

“Greens leader Adam Bandt might rail against capitalism but he sure loves private jets and luxury cars, as long as someone else is picking up the bill,” she wrote.

“You’d think the main transport favoured by a party that pushes the most extreme climate policies would be public transport, not private cars and jets, but I must’ve missed the myki card expense report.”

Mr Portelli, known for his repeated purchases of multimillion-dollar properties on The Block, is a university dropout who initially worked at his father’s truck repair business before striking riches in Los Angeles working in tech start ups.

He teamed up with his tech-savvy flatmate while in the US to develop several successful apps, which they then sold at enormous profits.

Mr Bandt has previously criticised the Block star’s spending. Picture: Instagram

In 2018 he co-founded LMCT+, a flashy lottery business that gives away houses, cars and cash under a legal loophole.

Last month, Mr Portelli offered a $100,000 reward after clueless thieves broke into the LMCT+ headquarters in Melbourne’s northern suburbs looking for “a big pot of gold”, only to find the place empty.

Technically it sells subscriptions, costing up to $100 a month, to a buyers club providing discounts across more than 700 retailers.

But LMCT+ is best known for its high-profile giveaways, which it operates as a “trade promotion” — a type of lottery originally designed to help businesses attract customers by rewarding them with prizes — under a license issued in NSW, the Herald Sun previously reported.

In October, the newspaper revealed gambling regulators in South Australia and Victoria had launched investigations into the company after receiving complaints, while NSW’s Office of Fair Trading said it had investigated LMCT+ in 2022 and found no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Mr Portelli told the Herald Sun at the time he “welcomed” the investigation.

“I pay six figures every week in tax, I’m happy to pay my tax,” he said.

“You can’t be this public and not have everything in order. We’ve been operating for five years now. I welcome anyone to come here and question, tear it apart, bring it on.”

Earlier this year Mr Portelli welcomed a baby boy with his girlfriend Karlie Butler.