WEBVTT - Peter Dutton and the billionaires 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:10.520 From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven AM. 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.400 While Peter Dutton's electorate raced for Cyclone Alfred, the Opposition leader, 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:16.800 it flew to Sydney to attend a twenty five thousand 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.360 dollars ahead dinner at Justin Hamm's for close mansion. It 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:22.520 was a choice that's been criticized by some in the 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.680 media and the government, with claims it shows where Dutton's 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.200 priorities and loyalties lie. But as Labour sets about to 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.400 raise money in similar ways, it raises questions about who 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.440 has the ear of our leaders and what Australia's wealthiest 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:39.560 people are getting in return for their donations. Today, special 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.879 correspondent for Saturday Paper, Jason kottsukus from Peter Dutton, Anthony 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.400 Albanezi and the billionaires they caught. 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:52.920 It's Friday, March twenty. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:01:00.440 Eight, So Jason, I was hoping we could go back 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:05.160 to early March when then tropical Cyclone Alfred was bearing 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.800 down on Brisbane and the Gold Coast, which is obviously 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.280 Peter Dutton's electorate. But tell me what Peter Dutton was 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:13.480 doing while that was happening. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.840 So on Tuesday of that week, this is March fourth, 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.080 when most of the country believed that this was going 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:25.760 to be a catastrophic weather event for southern Queensland and 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:27.160 northern New South Wales. 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.960 Here at Kedrin, the Emergency Management Center, there's already a 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.240 very significant effort underway from emergency services and so. 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.640 Painted Upton started the day in Brisbane getting a briefing 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:38.760 on the cyclone. 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:42.000 This is a very serious event and people need to 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.800 heed the words and the advice of the Premier very 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:46.880 carefully and act accordingly. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.400 But then in the afternoon he flew down to Sydney 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.680 to attend a fundraiser at the harbourside mansion of Maryvale 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:59.400 owner Justin Hempt. The event was attended by around twenty 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.400 guests were each asked to stump up around twenty five 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.160 thousand dollars to the Liberal Party's campaign, and that event 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.160 raised about half a million dollars. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.120 It wasn't a party, it was a fundraising dinner and 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.400 the Prime Minister really doing them around the country at 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:14.799 the moment. 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.360 At the time, Peter Dutton defended attending that event. 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.720 I think people who were using that for political advantage 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.000 in the time of a natural disaster. Frankly, that's a 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.200 poor reflection on them than it is on me. 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.880 But given the fear and anxiety in Queensland at this 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.440 impending natural disaster, the fundraiser became a flashpoint for criticism, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:41.480 with some people even comparing it to Scott Morrison's famous 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.799 Black Summer blunder when he left Australia and went to 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.240 Hawaii on a family holiday while the country burned. And 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.280 of course the Labor Party took full advantage of this, 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.320 with Queensland Labor Senator Murraywash tweeting out that we now 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.840 know how much Peter Dutton raised for the Liberals money 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:03.280 bags while he's community was packing sandbags. 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.040 Yeah, this was really pounced upon, wasn't it. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.680 Because you have someone with a natural disaster in their backyard, 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.200 leaving town, going to Sydney and going to a fundraiser 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:22.600 with one of Australia's wealthiest businessmen, someone who quite notoriously 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:27.400 also underpaid his workers for years. So since that moment, 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.480 since it was discovered that that's what Dunnan was doing, 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.800 what else have you found out about these types of fundraisers. 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.480 Well, I think what's so interesting about it is that 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.840 one of the hallmarks of Peter Dutton's leadership of the 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.320 Liberal Party since he became leader has been how he 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.920 has put distance between the Liberal Party and its traditional 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.640 backers at the big end of town. And he's carefully 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.200 positioned himself, I think as a defender of mainstream voters 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:01.160 against out of touch boardrooms, and has particular railed against 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.760 corporate Australia's support for some of these so called woke 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:11.320 issues like the Voice and not stocking Australia Day merchandise. 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.040 But at the same time Peter Dutton has actually cultivated 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:18.760 close corporate links. He's managed to work those links to 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:23.160 secure financial backing and strategic advice for the Liberal Party. 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:26.440 And I think the person who he's got closest to 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.839 in his time as opposition leader has been Gina Reinhart. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.400 Now, please enjoy your evening. I'm thrilled you've been having 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:37.560 bonding for the last two days on our charter jets 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:43.200 delighted will soon hear from another outstanding leader, the honorable 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.000 Peter Dutton. Thank you everyone. 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:50.600 She's Australia's richest woman. He went to her seventieth birthday 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.560 party in Perth. He flew all the way across the 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:56.800 country so he could attend that event just for one hour, 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.040 as it turned out, and at the time he said, 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.520 I considered Gena Reinhardt to be a dear friend, a 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:07.120 great Australian and Australia's most successful business woman, and so 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.760 I wanted to dig a bit more into these elite fundraisers. 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.440 And I spoke to several people who were actually attended 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.400 some of these events this year. 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:19.839 Okay, so tell me about who you spoke to. 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.920 One person I spoke to was Jeff Wilson, whose company 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.720 is more than five point nine billion dollars under management. 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.560 He's a very successful investor who's based in Sydney, and 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.599 he was really open about a dinner that he went 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.799 to on February twenty seven at the Towers Road mansion 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:42.040 of billionaire Melbourne investor Alex Weislitz. The tickets were around 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.479 twenty thousand dollars ahead and it was attended by who's 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:50.160 who of prominent Australian investors. These are chief executives from 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.800 medical tech companies, banking, biotech firms, the pharmacy of Godfrey's, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.920 the vacuum cleaner retailer, and the executive chairman of Australian 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:04.719 Community Media, Anthony Catalano, who employs more than four hundred 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:09.200 journalists around the country at over sixty media titles. So 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.359 all of these rich men gathered together to have dinner 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.160 with Peter Dutton, and by all accounts was a very 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:19.200 successful dinner which stretched over more than three hours. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:25.599 Okay, so you have these banking, tech media leaders spending 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:27.679 three hours at dinner with Dutton. 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.680 So what did they talk that Jason. 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:35.000 Well, according to Jeff Wilson, he told me that he 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.120 saw the dinner as an important opportunity to present his 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.040 view that the Albanese government has unfairly cracked down on 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:47.840 franking credits, so a tax credit given to shareholders by 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.120 the tax office for income tax paid by a company 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.160 on its profits. He also said that Dutton took the 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.600 opportunity to open the dinner with a fairly informal speech 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.640 laying out his plans for the upcoming election campaign. Jeff 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.000 Wilson told me that he was surprised actually by how 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.080 open and engaged Peter Dutton was, and he didn't even 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:13.560 mind Dutton's stance on some of these other issues that 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.200 are seen as quite antagonistic to big business. These are 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.600 things such as Dutton's plan to break up supermarket diopolies 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:27.040 or insurance companies that are charging too much for insurance premiums. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.920 And the whole thing, I think goes to show that 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:34.920 political parties, regardless of ideology, do depend on wealthy backers 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:39.760 to fund their campaigns a lot more than people realize. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:45.200 The uglier side of politics is that everyone in Parliament 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.560 or who aspires to be elected to federal Parliament has 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.440 to raise money so that they can campaign and have 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:55.760 their various campaign messages heard, just in the same way 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.000 the Australian Greens or the Teals or other independent candidates. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.240 They have to do the same thing. And when it 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.000 comes to the government, well, I think hath been easy. 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.520 He's attending his fair share of fancy fundraisers too. It's 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.040 not just Peter Dutton who's hosting these events. 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:19.280 After the break, what do Anthony Alberzi's own fancy fundraisers 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:19.680 look like? 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.240 Hi, I'm Daniel James seven Am tells stories that need 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.160 to be told. Our journalism is founded on trust and 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:36.200 independence and now we're increasing our coverage. Every Saturday until 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.960 the election will bring you an extra episode to break 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.640 down the biggest political moments of the week. If you 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.040 enjoy seven Am. The best way you can support us 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:47.720 is by making a contribution at seven am podcast dot 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.800 com dot au slash support. Thanks for listening and supporting 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.000 our work, Jason. 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:58.679 You've been speaking to people who've attended Peter Dutton's high 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.520 end fundraisers and you've got the inside story on pow 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.120 Dutton behaves, what's talked about in the room. 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:06.720 But what about on the. 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.680 Other side of politics, What do we know about what 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:13.560 kinds of fancy fundraisers that Anthony Appeneasy is attending. 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.000 Well, it's a great question, Ruby, because I think the 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.839 Labor Party sees a real opportunity here to go after 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:25.200 Peter Dutton. They haven't been able to attack him personally 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.000 on his own success as a property investor in Queensland, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.600 but they are trying to attack his links to some 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.800 of Australia's wealthiest people. And in a fundraising email send 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:42.720 out last week by Labour's national President Wayne Swan, the 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:46.240 title of that email was billionaires are coming for Labor 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.400 and Wayne Swan, who's of course a former Federal treasurer, 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.240 asked recipients of this email to join the dots and 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.760 see who is running Dutton's campaign. Just to quote from 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.840 that email directly, Wayne Swan said, this week we learned 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.800 that Reinhardt is ramping up her funding and demands on 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.079 Dutton with the election too close to call. This is 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.120 a real risk of becoming reality. Swan said. The truth is, 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.680 bosses like Reinhardt don't like that we've made it easier 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.800 for their workers to own a fair day's pay. So 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.600 I think while Labour's attempts to frame Dutton's billionaire tires 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.760 as a liability, its own engagement with corporate donors suggests 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.840 that the line between grassroots campaigning and elite fundraising is 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.600 much blurrier than either side might care to admit. 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.800 Tell me more about that than Jason. 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.720 What is happening behind closed doors when it comes to 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:47.040 seeingior labor figures and corporate donors well. 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.400 On the same day that Peter Dutton attended the event 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:55.600 at Justin Hem's mansion in Sydney, Anthony Abernezi also attended 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.320 a fundraiser in Sydney on the morning of March the fourth. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.720 The way Anthony Albanesi has tried to explain it is 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.800 that on the same day Peter Dutton flew out of Queensland. 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:09.120 I was flying into Queensland. 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.280 I've been getting on with doing this job. 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:16.480 That's what I've been doing, giving support to people in 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:18.439 a totally non political way. 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:23.160 But on March the sixteenth, it has emerged that Anthony 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.800 Albanesi attended a ten thousand dollars per head dinner at 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:31.560 Sydney's Aria restaurant, which reportedly raised one hundred thousand dollars 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.079 for the Labor Party campaign. And that event has sparked 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:38.920 criticism that the government, just like they've been accusing the opposition, 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.640 was prioritizing elite donors over struggling Australians. 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:47.040 Right, So this is something that everybody is doing, despite 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.080 the optics of it. I mean, politicians know that it 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:53.520 looks bad to have fancy fundraisers with wealthy donors, but 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.079 they do it anyway. So what does that tell you, Jason, 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:01.240 about how important these events are as revenue raises for 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:02.120 the major parties. 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.040 Well, I think it tells us that they're very important. 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:09.160 A big part of fundraising campaigns for political parties these 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:13.040 days is focused on so called small donors. These are 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.080 people who are asked to pay twenty dollars fifty dollars 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.520 every time they get an email like that one we 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.800 saw from Wayne Swan. Both parties are sending out lots 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.080 of these kinds of emails, and so are fundraising vehicles 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.920 for the independent candidates too, Climate two hundred, which is 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:32.079 of course headed by Simon Holmes a Court. They're sending 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:35.360 out these kinds of emails every day asking people to 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.760 stump up small amounts of money. But while those small 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.960 contributions are very important, I think until we have the 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.880 sort of proper public funding model in place, this is 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.800 the legislation that was passed in the last sitting week 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:52.040 of Parliament in February. Until those laws are firmly in 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.080 place in the lead up to the next federal election, 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.719 dinners like the ones we're talking about are just as 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.120 important as money raised from small contributions. 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.960 And what should we take from them Jason, Because obviously 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.600 there is no formal arrangement made between a donor and 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.680 a politician at any of these events. So how does 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.880 it work. What is being implicitly agreed to by a 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.480 political party when they take these large donations from people 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:21.600 who do have an explicit agenda. 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.319 Well, Ultimately, as voters head to the polls, they will 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:30.120 not only be choosing between two leaders, but also weighing 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.640 up whose financial back is a news vision for the 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:39.360 country aligns more closely with their own interests. I think 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:44.760 while leaders who attend these kinds of dinners aren't making 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.719 formal commitments to the people sitting around that table, they 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.200 are getting a lot of very important feedback from those 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.360 people as to what they see as being the most 0:13:55.480 --> 0:14:01.040 important issues affecting the country. If you've got the money 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.160 and are able to pay to sit at a table 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:09.040 with Peter Dutton or Anthony Albanezi, you are being listened to, 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.960 your voices being heard, and that gives you perhaps an 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.920 unfair advantage over ordinary voters who perhaps are as well 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:17.359 resourced financially. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:22.480 Jason, thank you so much for your time. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:24.520 Ruby, always a pleasure to talk with you. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:25.320 Thanks very much. 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.760 Also in the news today, the Opposition has promised to 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.720 cut the fuel excise by twenty five cents for a year, 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.400 taking the rate from about fifty cents to twenty five 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.720 cents per later, outlining the policy in his budget reply 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.040 speech last night. Opposition leader Peter Dutton said his policy 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:55.720 would take effect as soon as he won office, and 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.600 a member of Elon Musk's so called Department of Government 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:02.600 Efficiency team wants support to a cyber crun game, according 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.800 to digital Records. Records reviewed by news outlet Reuters revealed 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.680 that Edward Korstein, a nineteen year old DOGE staffer, previously 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.200 ran a company that provided services to a ring of 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.760 cyber criminals that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.400 cyberstalking an SBI agent. As part of his role at DOGE, 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.720 Coorsteine has been given access to official networks to radically 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:25.280 downsize the US government