Anthony Albanese has been quizzed about attending an exclusive dinner at a $40m mansion, which is the subject of an Australian Taxation Office deception claim.

The Prime Minister attended a dinner at the $40m Point Piper mansion, hosted by Felix Lee, the son of Chinese billionaire accused of tax evasion, as reported by the Australian Financial Review.

The event cost $10,000 per head, the outlet reported.

Speaking on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, Mr Albanese avoided confirming if he attended the intimate event at the billionaire’s mansion.

“Did you attend the home of Felix Lee in Point Piper?” host David Speers asked.

“Look, I attend lots of dinners,” Mr Albanese responded.

When quizzed again about the dinner, Mr Albanese said he attends “lots of functions in lots of places, including last night right here”.

Mr Speers continued probing Mr Albanese about the function.

“Why don’t you want to answer that?” he asked.

“Well, I do,” Mr Albanese said

“You’ve just said that that occurred. Yeah, that’s fine. I attend lots of dinners in lots of places, and I don’t talk about private dinners. I’ve held a number this week here in Adelaide as well.”

Other high profile attendees of the intimate dinner reportedly included former Premier Daniel Andrews, Commonwealth Bank chief executive officer Matt Comyn and former ASIC chair James Shipton.

The event was hosted by Felix Lee, whose father, Phillip Dong Fang Lee, has been accused of deceiving the ATO about his holdings and funnelling funds from China into Australian bank accounts.

When asked about allegation against Mr Lee’s father, Mr Albanese rejected any knowledge of the accusations.

“Well, I’m not aware of those issues,” he said.

He said the Labor Party was “transparent” with the donations received.

“We declare all of our donations in accordance with the rules. We’re transparent about it,” he said.

“I do attend a lot of events and that is part of the process that occurs engaging with people.”

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Emergency Management Minister Kirsty McBain defended Mr Albanese and said politicians from all parties “attend fundraisers frequently” but did not take direction from those who host events.

“We do that to engage on a whole range of policy issues. But we do not take directions from the people that we eat with,” she said.

“It’s important to understand their points of view on a whole range of subjects.”

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