Anthony Albanese under fire over $100,000 fundraiser

Labor MP Patrick Gorman has defended Anthony Albanese attending a fundraising dinner after criticism of Peter Dutton flying to a such an event ahead of cyclone Alfred.

Anthony Albanese in Melbourne on Sunday with the Member for Dunkley, Jodie Belyea. Picture: NewsWire/ Nadir Kinani

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Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman has defended Anthony Albanese’s decision to attend a $100,000 fundraising dinner on Sunday night following Labor’s fierce criticism of Peter Dutton flying to a fundraising event ahead of Cyclone Alfred making landfall earlier this month.

Mr Albanese attended a $10,000 a head dinner at the Aria restaurant in Sydney, according to reporting by the Nightly, after having rescheduled the event because of the cyclone about to hit southern Queensland and northern NSW.

The dinner, attended by 10 guests, was nothing out of the ordinary, given an election was just weeks away, Mr Gorman said.

“When it comes to the realities of political fundraising … members of parliament and senior leaders do go to fundraising dinners, that’s the nature of how we fund elections in this country,” he told Sky News.

Despite the dependence on such fundraising, Labor and the Coalition last month joined forces to limit the amount parties and candidates could spend in an election campaign as part of reforms that independents argued entrenched the major parties’ advantage.

“We as the Albanese government have taken some really serious steps of trying to reduce the influence of big money in elections – we put that through the parliament just a month ago,” Mr Gorman told Sky News.

“I also given credit to the ­Coalition for their work in making sure we can have a more robust higher integrity electoral system for the future.”

The $100,000 dinner comes ahead of next week’s budget, where the government is being urged to spend billions in extra cost-of-living support and welfare payment increases.

The Australian approached the Prime Minister for comment.
Mr Albanese also faced scrutiny for attending a fundraiser on March 4, the same day as the ­Opposition Leader flew to his own fundraising event.

Labor MPs criticised Mr Dutton’s decision to leave his north Brisbane electorate on the eve of what was expected to be a devastating weather event, with Queensland senator and cabinet minister Murray Watt saying the move said “a lot” about the ­Coalition leader.

“You saw that (Mr Dutton) jetted off to a fundraiser at Sydney harbourside this week when his community was actually trying to get prepared for this event,” Senator Watt told ABC Insiders earlier this month.

“So he was filling Liberal Party money bags while his own community was filling sandbags, which I think says a lot about him.”

Mr Gorman said the situations were different because Mr Albanese had not left his electorate as Mr Dutton had done.

“When it comes to the Prime Minister, he lives here in Canberra but he also spends a lot of time in Sydney, which is where his electorate is,” Mr Gorman said.

Education Minister Jason Clare on Saturday criticised Mr Dutton for deciding to attend a fundraiser at a “billionaire’s place” rather than “help his own community prepare for the ­coming cyclone”.

“That tells me that this bloke doesn’t have the judgment and doesn’t have the character to be the prime minister of Australia,” Mr Clare said.