Peter Dutton and the billionaires

From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM. While Peter Dutton's electorate raced for Cyclone Alfred, the Opposition leader, it flew to Sydney to attend a twenty five thousand dollars ahead dinner at Justin Hamm's for close mansion. It was a choice that's been criticized by some in the media and the government, with claims it shows where Dutton's

It's Friday, March twenty.

Eight, So Jason, I was hoping we could go back to early March when then tropical Cyclone Alfred was bearing down on Brisbane and the Gold Coast, which is obviously Peter Dutton's electorate. But tell me what Peter Dutton was doing while that was happening.

So on Tuesday of that week, this is March fourth, when most of the country believed that this was going to be a catastrophic weather event for southern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Here at Kedrin, the Emergency Management Center, there's already a very significant effort underway from emergency services and so.

Painted Upton started the day in Brisbane getting a briefing on the cyclone.

This is a very serious event and people need to heed the words and the advice of the Premier very carefully and act accordingly.

But then in the afternoon he flew down to Sydney to attend a fundraiser at the harbourside mansion of Maryvale owner Justin Hempt. The event was attended by around twenty guests were each asked to stump up around twenty five thousand dollars to the Liberal Party's campaign, and that event raised about half a million dollars.

It wasn't a party, it was a fundraising dinner and the Prime Minister really doing them around the country at the moment.

At the time, Peter Dutton defended attending that event.

I think people who were using that for political advantage in the time of a natural disaster. Frankly, that's a poor reflection on them than it is on me.

But given the fear and anxiety in Queensland at this impending natural disaster, the fundraiser became a flashpoint for criticism, with some people even comparing it to Scott Morrison's famous Black Summer blunder when he left Australia and went to

Yeah, this was really pounced upon, wasn't it.

Because you have someone with a natural disaster in their backyard, leaving town, going to Sydney and going to a fundraiser with one of Australia's wealthiest businessmen, someone who quite notoriously also underpaid his workers for years. So since that moment, since it was discovered that that's what Dunnan was doing, what else have you found out about these types of fundraisers.

Well, I think what's so interesting about it is that one of the hallmarks of Peter Dutton's leadership of the Liberal Party since he became leader has been how he has put distance between the Liberal Party and its traditional

Now, please enjoy your evening. I'm thrilled you've been having bonding for the last two days on our charter jets delighted will soon hear from another outstanding leader, the honorable Peter Dutton. Thank you everyone.

She's Australia's richest woman. He went to her seventieth birthday party in Perth. He flew all the way across the country so he could attend that event just for one hour, as it turned out, and at the time he said, I considered Gena Reinhardt to be a dear friend, a great Australian and Australia's most successful business woman, and so I wanted to dig a bit more into these elite fundraisers. And I spoke to several people who were actually attended some of these events this year.

Okay, so tell me about who you spoke to.

One person I spoke to was Jeff Wilson, whose company is more than five point nine billion dollars under management. He's a very successful investor who's based in Sydney, and he was really open about a dinner that he went to on February twenty seven at the Towers Road mansion of billionaire Melbourne investor Alex Weislitz. The tickets were around twenty thousand dollars ahead and it was attended by who's

Okay, so you have these banking, tech media leaders spending three hours at dinner with Dutton.

So what did they talk that Jason.

Well, according to Jeff Wilson, he told me that he saw the dinner as an important opportunity to present his view that the Albanese government has unfairly cracked down on franking credits, so a tax credit given to shareholders by the tax office for income tax paid by a company on its profits. He also said that Dutton took the opportunity to open the dinner with a fairly informal speech

After the break, what do Anthony Alberzi's own fancy fundraisers look like?

Hi, I'm Daniel James seven Am tells stories that need to be told. Our journalism is founded on trust and independence and now we're increasing our coverage. Every Saturday until the election will bring you an extra episode to break down the biggest political moments of the week. If you enjoy seven Am. The best way you can support us is by making a contribution at seven am podcast dot com dot au slash support. Thanks for listening and supporting our work, Jason.

You've been speaking to people who've attended Peter Dutton's high end fundraisers and you've got the inside story on pow Dutton behaves, what's talked about in the room.

But what about on the.

Other side of politics, What do we know about what kinds of fancy fundraisers that Anthony Appeneasy is attending.

Well, it's a great question, Ruby, because I think the Labor Party sees a real opportunity here to go after Peter Dutton. They haven't been able to attack him personally on his own success as a property investor in Queensland, but they are trying to attack his links to some

Tell me more about that than Jason.

What is happening behind closed doors when it comes to seeingior labor figures and corporate donors well.

On the same day that Peter Dutton attended the event at Justin Hem's mansion in Sydney, Anthony Abernezi also attended a fundraiser in Sydney on the morning of March the fourth. The way Anthony Albanesi has tried to explain it is that on the same day Peter Dutton flew out of Queensland. I was flying into Queensland.

I've been getting on with doing this job.

That's what I've been doing, giving support to people in a totally non political way.

But on March the sixteenth, it has emerged that Anthony Albanesi attended a ten thousand dollars per head dinner at Sydney's Aria restaurant, which reportedly raised one hundred thousand dollars for the Labor Party campaign. And that event has sparked criticism that the government, just like they've been accusing the opposition, was prioritizing elite donors over struggling Australians.

Right, So this is something that everybody is doing, despite the optics of it. I mean, politicians know that it looks bad to have fancy fundraisers with wealthy donors, but they do it anyway. So what does that tell you, Jason, about how important these events are as revenue raises for the major parties.

Well, I think it tells us that they're very important. A big part of fundraising campaigns for political parties these days is focused on so called small donors. These are people who are asked to pay twenty dollars fifty dollars every time they get an email like that one we saw from Wayne Swan. Both parties are sending out lots of these kinds of emails, and so are fundraising vehicles for the independent candidates too, Climate two hundred, which is

And what should we take from them Jason, Because obviously there is no formal arrangement made between a donor and a politician at any of these events. So how does it work. What is being implicitly agreed to by a political party when they take these large donations from people who do have an explicit agenda.

Well, Ultimately, as voters head to the polls, they will not only be choosing between two leaders, but also weighing up whose financial back is a news vision for the country aligns more closely with their own interests. I think while leaders who attend these kinds of dinners aren't making formal commitments to the people sitting around that table, they are getting a lot of very important feedback from those people as to what they see as being the most

Jason, thank you so much for your time.

Ruby, always a pleasure to talk with you.

Thanks very much.

Also in the news today, the Opposition has promised to cut the fuel excise by twenty five cents for a year, taking the rate from about fifty cents to twenty five cents per later, outlining the policy in his budget reply speech last night. Opposition leader Peter Dutton said his policy would take effect as soon as he won office, and a member of Elon Musk's so called Department of Government Efficiency team wants support to a cyber crun game, according