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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The event cost $10,000 per head, the outlet reported. <\/p>\n
Speaking on ABC\u2019s Insiders on Sunday, Mr Albanese avoided confirming if he attended the intimate event at the billionaire\u2019s mansion. <\/p>\n
\u201cDid you attend the home of Felix Lee in Point Piper?\u201d host David Speers asked. <\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I attend lots of dinners,\u201d Mr Albanese responded. <\/p>\n
When quizzed again about the dinner, Mr Albanese said he attends \u201clots of functions in lots of places, including last night right here\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Speers continued probing Mr Albanese about the function.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t you want to answer that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I do,\u201d Mr Albanese said <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve just said that that occurred. Yeah, that\u2019s fine. I attend lots of dinners in lots of places, and I don\u2019t talk about private dinners. I\u2019ve held a number this week here in Adelaide as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
When asked about allegation against Mr Lee\u2019s father, Mr Albanese rejected any knowledge of the accusations. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019m not aware of those issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the Labor Party was \u201ctransparent\u201d with the donations received. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe declare all of our donations in accordance with the rules. We\u2019re transparent about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do attend a lot of events and that is part of the process that occurs engaging with people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Emergency Management Minister Kirsty McBain defended Mr Albanese and said politicians from all parties \u201cattend fundraisers frequently\u201d but did not take direction from those who host events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do that to engage on a whole range of policy issues. But we do not take directions from the people that we eat with,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to understand their points of view on a whole range of subjects.\u201d <\/p>\n
Read related topics:Anthony Albanese<\/a>Tax Time<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese has been quizzed about attending an exclusive dinner at a $40m mansion, which is the subject…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63724,44015,63707,63717,5859,33780,63701,63721,52275,38151,37330,63709,1647,38797,395,2736,63712,36359,63710,63693,483,63713,22,53932,21,2285,63706,63723,63699,54473,37575,58178,6909,62330,63720,63240,63691,63711,48271,15876,63695,63694,43201,38992,35086,63703,379,63704,63702,3121,7350,62331,37316,63700,62329,63705,19479,13091,63719,47225,34568,19816,63715,14948,63722,63718,57998,63714,37015,63708,63716,39261,63698,39912,63697,63696,37012,56538,37324,41162,37601,42533,52108,42261,63692,38964,44902,33486,61872],"class_list":["post-58797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-mr-speers","tag-s-father","tag-s-insiders","tag-s-mansion","tag-5859","tag-33780","tag-a-40m-mansion","tag-a-chinese-billionaire","tag-a-dinner","tag-a-lot","tag-a-number","tag-a-whole-range","tag-abc","tag-accordance","tag-adelaide","tag-albo","tag-all-parties","tag-allegation","tag-an-australian-taxation-office-deception","tag-an-exclusive-dinner","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-any-knowledge","tag-au","tag-australian-bank-accounts","tag-austrlia","tag-china","tag-chinese-billionaire","tag-commonwealth-bank-chief-executive-officer-matt-comyn","tag-dinners","tag-direction","tag-directions","tag-emergency-management-minister-kirsty-mcbain","tag-events","tag-felix-lee","tag-former-asic-chair-james-shipton","tag-former-premier-daniel-andrews","tag-functions","tag-fundraisers","tag-funds","tag-head","tag-his-holdings","tag-host-david-speers","tag-last-night","tag-lots","tag-mr-albanese","tag-mr-lee","tag-newswire-news","tag-other-high-profile-attendees","tag-our-donations","tag-part","tag-people","tag-phillip-dong-fang-lee","tag-places","tag-point-piper","tag-point-piper-dinner","tag-policy-issues","tag-politicians","tag-prime-minister-anthony-albanese","tag-private-dinners","tag-reporters","tag-subjects","tag-sunday","tag-tax-deception","tag-tax-evasion","tag-the-40m-point-piper-mansion","tag-the-accusations","tag-the-ato","tag-the-australian-financial-review","tag-the-billionaire","tag-the-dinner","tag-the-donations","tag-the-event","tag-the-function","tag-the-home","tag-the-intimate-dinner","tag-the-intimate-event","tag-the-labor-party","tag-the-outlet","tag-the-people","tag-the-prime-minister","tag-the-process","tag-the-rules","tag-the-son","tag-the-subject","tag-their-points","tag-this-week","tag-those-issues","tag-view","tag-whose-father"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}