LNP MP Warren Entsch gets billionaire Soviet-born donor Pfizer jab on Torres Strait

Warren Entsch helped a billionaire donor jump the Covid vaccine queue, lobbied for his citizenship and arranged a private dinner with then-PM Scott Morrison.

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch. Picture: Brian Cassey

Veteran Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch organised for a billionaire Liberal National Party donor to jump the queue and fly to the Torres Strait to have a Pfizer Covid jab, lobbied for him to be given citizenship, and arranged a private dinner for him with then-prime minister Scott Morrison.

Mr Entsch then later secured a $304,000 donation from Soviet-born property developer Alex ­Sekler just ahead of last year’s federal election, which was used to bolster his campaign to hold the marginal seat of Leichhardt.

An investigation by The Weekend Australian has confirmed Mr Entsch called Torres Strait health authorities in July 2021 to arrange for Cairns-based Mr Sekler to get the Pfizer Covid vaccination on Thursday Island, where it was being rolled out to protect the residents of the vulnerable region.

“He asked me where he could get it, and I said I heard it is readily available up there,” Mr Entsch said when asked this week about facilitating the businessman’s jab.

“I made a phone call and asked them if it was possible if he went up there.

“My understanding was he was also looking at making an additional donation (to the hospital) into anything that they wanted. I don’t know what happened.”

Under the rules of the vaccination rollout, 65-year-old Mr Sekler was not eligible to receive Pfizer in Cairns – where he was living at the time – and would have had to receive AstraZeneca without the politician’s intervention.

The businessman chartered a light aircraft and flew to Horn ­Island on July 7 with Mr Entsch’s taxpayer-funded electorate office staffer Tamara Srhoj, who the MP had instructed to show him how to catch a bus and a ferry to Thursday Island to get the vaccination.

Asked why Ms Srhoj had accompanied Mr Sekler – who had never been to the Torres Strait before – Mr Entsch said: “I’ve got an office in the Torres Strait as well.

“I had stuff that I could get her to do while she was up there. I said to her ‘you might as well take advantage of it, or save booking a flight if you can go up with him. And she did.

“(I said) ‘Go up with him, and do what we’ve got to do at the office, and assist him’.”

Ms Srhoj and Mr Sekler flew back to Cairns on the private plane the same day.

Mr Entsch denied Mr Sekler was jumping the queue in order to get the Pfizer vaccine.

“Anybody who wanted it there, they could have it there,” he said.

Mr Sekler made his fortune in property and manufacturing in Russia and Israel in the 1990s and 2000s. He moved to Australia a decade ago and set up a number of companies. He also has companies registered in Cyprus, a favoured tax haven for the Russian elites.

Business records show Mr ­Sekler was born in Moldova in 1957, when it was then part of the Soviet Union.

A Coalition source told The Weekend Australian that Mr Entsch was facing defeat at the May 2022 election and had “courted Sekler” for more than 18 months to secure a major donation to boost advertising and social media for his campaign.

“It was done over dinner, Sekler asked Entsch ‘how much will you need to run a proper campaign’ and Entsch said you would need about $300,000, and it was done,’’ the source said.

In two interviews with The Weekend Australian, Mr Entsch admitted to personally advocating, including in writing, for Mr Sekler to receive Australian citizenship, after the businessman’s extensive overseas travel threatened his eligibility.

The MP said he may have spoken to then immigration minister Alex Hawke “in passing” about the plight of Mr Sekler, who has since become a citizen.

Mr Entsch also organised a private dinner for Mr Sekler with Scott Morrison, when he was prime minister, along with senior Morrison government ministers Bridget McKenzie and David Littleproud at a Canberra restaurant on February 7 last year.

It was the night of the marathon Religious Discrimination Bill debate, when Mr Morrison lost control of his party and five LNP MPs crossed the floor to support a Labor amendment. Mr Entsch reportedly changed his mind about crossing the floor, despite previously airing concerns about the religious freedom issue, angering his rebel colleagues.

Asked about arranging the exclusive dinner for Mr Sekler, Mr Entsch said: “Is there a law against that? He didn’t ask them for bloody money; he didn’t ask for anything.”

He said Mr Sekler was excited to tell the then prime minister and the other senior Coalition ministers about his development of “the Australian silicon valley” in southeast Queensland, as well as a “fire retardant” that he was developing.

Two months after the Canberra dinner, on April 8, Mr Sekler’s Liral Holdings Pty Ltd donated $304,000 to the Queensland LNP, becoming the party’s biggest single donor.

Violetta Sekler and Alex Sekler with Dr Ken Chapman (centre) after they donated $650,000 to the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation in March 2020.

While Mr Entsch said he would have received “some” of Mr Sekler’s donation for his campaign, Coalition sources said $300,000 was used for Leichhardt, which was heavily targeted by Anthony Albanese’s Labor.

The remaining $4000 covered the bill from the Canberra dinner with Mr Morrison.

Mr Entsch confirmed he organised Mr Sekler’s financial support at a separate dinner. “He offered to pay some money and he offered to pay it to the LNP. He was quite happy to support me, and I appreciate that,” he said.

Asked whether Mr Sekler gave $304,000 to the LNP because Mr Entsch had organised his Pfizer jab, lobbied for his citizenship, and arranged a private dinner with the PM and senior ministers, Mr Entsch said no.

“No, I think he gave $300,000 because he believed in the work we were doing,” he said.

“There are no favours, I can assure you of that … absolute unadulterated nonsense. There was no conditions on anything that he asked me to do, or I offered to do for him, absolutely no inducements or suggestions otherwise.”

Mr Sekler moved to Cairns with his wife Violetta, a life coach and relationship break-up expert, just over a decade ago, and now lives in southeast Queensland.

In January 2019, public records show Mr Sekler donated $13,000 to the LNP.

Mr Entsch praised “my good friends Alex and Violetta Sekler” on Facebook on March 19, 2020, after the couple donated $650,000 to the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation, chaired by Ken Chapman, to cover the whole of the facility’s coronavirus equipment appeal. It was the largest single donation the foundation had ever received.

The Seklers also donated $80,000 to the foundation in 2019 to finalise its endoscopy ­appeal. Mr Sekler did not respond to questions from The Weekend Australian, and Ms Srhoj did not return calls.