Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased that we have at least had some engagement from the parliamentary secretary. However, we have had no defence with regard to the facts around the 1 June fundraiser held by the Liberal Party at Kirribilli. It is interesting that, in his defence of the Prime Minister, the parliamentary secretary has again asserted that this was not a fundraiser even though the Prime Minister said at his press conference last Thursday that it was. Indeed, the business observer registration form for that function indicates that, for the payment of $8,250, the only functions that cannot be bought into—that is, through additional tickets open to people who do not pay the full amount—are morning tea with chiefs of staff, the Senate afternoon tea and of course the Prime Minister’s welcome reception at Kirribilli. With all due respect to our good Senate colleagues and the chiefs of staff, the big attraction is pretty clear. If you add up the cost of the additional tickets that are available for each of the other functions, even if you went to two at one time, you would pay a total of $1,300. So an additional $6,950 can be seen as being paid for that Kirribilli function alone.

I also note that it is argued that people were somehow there at the invitation of the Prime Minister. However, the registration form makes it very clear that forms had to be returned with payment to the federal council’s secretariat by Monday, 30 May 2007 and that all cheques had to be payable to the Liberal Party of Australia. That is the key problem here—that you have a function at Kirribilli House that is open to anyone who can afford the $8,250 fee. We were told that some $5,186.78 was returned—that is, for food, $2,128.50; beverages, $1,476.52; casual staff, $829.57; and hire charges, $752.19. That was stated in the parliament on Tuesday, 12 June. It is interesting that last Thursday the Prime Minister stated that additional money had been paid back by the Liberal Party, for security. In the letter to the Leader of the Opposition on 14 June, the Prime Minister stated, ‘$5,186.69, and an additional amount only advised to my office today of $312.45, that being for security.’ My question is: at what time was that additional $312.45 paid for security, was it only last week and, going to the other functions that have been held, when were the payments made for the 1999, 2002 and 2005 functions?

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