By Benjamin Preiss, Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker
Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy claims he did not know alleged Melbourne Mafia boss Tony Madafferi would be at his table when he dined at a lobster restaurant earlier this year.
Mr Guy dined with Mr Madafferi and other Liberal party figures over several bottles of Penfolds Grange at the Lobster Cave in Melbourne's south-east.
Mr Madafferi, a wealthy market gardener and the owner of the La Porchetta pizza chain, has repeatedly been accused by police in court of being a high-ranking member of Melbourne's Mafia.
Mr Guy said Liberal Party member and Executive Member of AUSVEG Victoria, Frank Lamattina, invited him to meet his cousins to discuss the new Epping market.
Oppostion Leader Mathew Guy.Credit: Justin McManus
"Frank said to me he would bring his cousins ... the Lamattina family is big," Mr Guy said outside Parliament on Tuesday morning.
"I went there, I met someone associated with the party for 50 years."
He denied knowing Mr Madafferi would be there until he was introduced to him as "cousin Tony".
"I don't know cousin Tony," he said.
Alleged Melbourne Mafia boss Tony Madafferi.Credit: Jason South
"I was told Frank was going to bring his cousins. He didn't lie. He did.
"I don't know who your cousins are, I don't know who his cousins are."
'Safer communities. Protecting your future': A billboard on the Nepean Highway for Matthew Guy.Credit: Joe Armao, Fairfax Media.
Asked if he could have left once he found out Mr Madafferi was attending, Mr Guy said: "Once you're there, you're there."
"If I'd been there two minutes the same story would have run."
The Lobster Cave at Beaumaris.Credit: Joe Armao
However, sources with direct knowledge of the dinner have confirmed that Mr Guy's office was informed that Mr Madafferi would be one of the guests.
A spokesman for Mr Guy told Fairfax Media on Monday the dinner had included "around 20 of his [Mr Lamattina's] relatives".
On Tuesday, Mr Guy said about 12 people attended the dinner. "If I was supposedly out there to conduct a meeting with Melbourne's underworld would I have done it in public in the middle of the Lobster Cave?"
Mr Guy denied drinking Grange with the meal.
He said he would not have attended the dinner in hindsight.
Mr Guy denied discussing political donations at the dinner. "There was no talk that I sought donations or received donations from anyone at that table," he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews and his deputy James Merlino had mentioned the dinner to him in Parliament in May, according to Mr Guy. "It was known back then."
But Mr Merlino rebuffed that suggestion, claiming he learnt of the private dinner when he read The Age on Tuesday morning.
"These are desperate comments from a desperate leader of the opposition," he said.
Mr Merlino said the revelation "goes directly to the character, the ethics, the judgment of the leader of the Opposition".
"This is no joke, this is a deadly serious issue. The leader of the Liberal Party having dinner, an intimate dinner, with ... someone who Victoria Police have serious concerns about.
"The people of Victoria deserve an answer. Why on earth had the Leader of the Opposition had an intimate dinner with an [alleged] organised crime figure?"
Mr Guy has previously been warned about associating with alleged Mafia figures after he claimed as planning minister he had "unwittingly" become the star attraction at a 2013 fundraiser hosted by Mr Madafferi at his Docklands venue centre.
Mr Madafferi has been banned from Crown Casino and all Victorian racetracks and in an affidavit filed in court in June, Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham said the police hold "substantial intelligence" indicating that Mr Madafferi had "substantial and close involvement with serious criminal conduct including drug importation, murder and extortion".
Superintendent Brigham also alleged that Mr Madafferi was "a known associate of prominent criminal entities and persons who have a history of significant criminal conduct that includes money laundering and drug trafficking".
Also at the dinner was Hawthorn footballer turned Liberal councillor Geoff Ablett, and two other Calabrian community members, Bruno Diaco, a relative of Mr Madafferi, and Vince Doria, a business partner of Mr Madafferi who co-owns the Docklands venue used for the 2013 fundraiser.
Premier Daniel Andrews would not be drawn on whether IBAC should investigate the dinner.
He largely ducked questions about Mr Guy, saying his conduct was a matter for him.
"I have absolutely no comment to make on that," he said. "That's a matter for him."
When asked if he had ever dined with Mr Madafferi, he quipped: "I don't know. I certainly haven't had a lobster and a bottle of Grange with them."
Mr Andrews also declined to comment about whether a lack of transparency regarding political donations fostered conduct such as Mr Guy's dinner.
"People are free to draw their own conclusions about whether this is a commentary on donations, the system, individuals, I'll leave it to others to explain exactly what's gone on here," he said.
Attorney-General Martin Pakula said the dinner was a "demonstration of Matthew Guy's hypocrisy".
"It raises significant questions about whether his tough on crime persona can be believed, if he is prepared to dine with people like this for the sake of a few bucks for the Liberal Party," he said.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said: "Organised crime is responsible for such a large amount of harm in our community, I don't think there is any acceptable reason to be associating with people that the Victoria and federal police consider to be a significant risk to this state."
- with Nino Bucci, Timna Jacks, Richard Willingham