‘Selfish and disgusting’: Peter Dutton refuses to defend Warren Entsch over billionaire donor jab

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has refused to defend Warren Entsch, after it emerged the veteran Liberal MP helped an ultra-wealthy donor jump the Covid vaccination queue.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has refused to defend Warren Entsch, after it emerged the veteran Liberal MP helped an ultra-wealthy donor jump the Covid vaccination queue by flying to the Torres Strait for his jab. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has refused to defend Warren Entsch, after it emerged the veteran Liberal MP helped an ultra-wealthy donor jump the Covid vaccination queue by flying to the Torres Strait for his jab.

The Australian on Saturday revealed that Mr Entsch organised for Soviet-born property developer Alex Sekler to receive the Pfizer vaccination on Thursday Island in July 2021, at a time when the 65-year-old could not get his preferred jab in Cairns, and Pfizer was in short supply.

Mr Entsch, the long-time MP for the Far North Queensland federal electorate of Leichhardt, also instructed his taxpayer-funded electorate office staffer to chaperone the billionaire and fly to the Torres Strait on Mr Sekler’s privately chartered plane.

The politician lobbied for Mr Sekler – who has Israeli citizenship and was born in Moldova – to be given Australian citizenship, and arranged for him to have an exclusive private dinner with then-prime minister Scott Morrison and senior ministers Bridget McKenzie and David Littleproud.

Violetta and Alex Sekler with Dr Ken Chapman (centre) after one of their generous donations.

Mr Sekler then donated $304,000 to the Liberal National Party at the request of Mr Entsch, weeks before last year’s federal election, and $300,000 was used to pay for the majority of the successful LNP campaign to hold Leichhardt. It was by far the LNP’s largest donation.

The Australian asked Mr Dutton, a Queensland LNP colleague of Mr Entsch, what he would do about the backbencher, whether he would instruct the LNP to donate the amount to an Indigenous health charity, and whether he thought Mr Entsch’s behaviour was appropriate.

Mr Dutton did not defend Mr Entsch and refused to answer any questions about the matter.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles, a former health minister, said Mr Entsch’s actions were “incredibly selfish”.

“Queenslanders will never forget how the LNP refused to buy enough Pfizer vaccines,” Mr Miles said. “Now we find out they were effectively stealing them from the most remote and vulnerable Queensland communities to give to their richest Russian donors.

“It’s so incredibly selfish and disgusting.”

“It’s even worse that the man who facilitated it has made his living purporting to represent Thursday Islanders.”

“LNP leaders Dutton and Crisafulli should be ashamed of themselves for profiting from such greed. I call on them to donate the funds they raised from this scam to an appropriate Indigenous health charity.”

Labor senator Nita Green, who is based in Cairns, said the revelations were an example of Mr Entsch “demonstrating that he believes he is above the rules that apply to everyone else”.

“Mr Entsch has questions to answer about why he thought it was appropriate for his billionaire donor mate to jump the vaccination queue ahead of a vulnerable Indigenous community,” Senator Green said.

“It doesn’t pass the pub test.

“It’s important to remember that this occurred at a time when Queensland only had a few days of Pfizer vaccine left so it was only being directed to priority groups.”

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Entsch defended helping Mr Sekler but insisted he had done him no special favours.

He said he had instructed his staffer to go with Mr Sekler to the Torres Strait because the billionaire had never been there before, and needed to know where to go once he landed on Horn Island. Mr Entsch said he had an office on Thursday Island that the staffer could have worked in that day.

“(Mr Sekler) 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.

“There are no favours, I can assure you of that … absolute unadulterated nonsense.”

Mr Sekler did not respond to questions from The Australian.