Speaking for the first time about reports that he travelled to Sydney for a fundraising event, the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has defended honouring “diary commitments” as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred bore down on Queensland.
The Australian Financial Review revealed Mr Dutton had travelled to a private event at the Sydney home of hospitality mogul Justin Hemmes on Tuesday, after preparing his elderly aunt’s home and his own property for the expected cyclone.
At the time, the then-cyclone was expected to make landfall on Thursday.
In a phone interview on Sky News Mr Dutton said criticism for his visit to Sydney was politically motivated.
“It wasn’t a party, it was a fundraising dinner and the prime minister and I are doing them around the country at the moment,” Mr Dutton said.
“I received a briefing that morning, went down [to Sydney], I had diary commitments including with an archbishop and a number of meetings otherwise in Sydney, I flew home on the first flight on Wednesday morning back into my electorate.
“I think people who are using that for political advantage at a time of a natural disaster, frankly, that’s a poorer reflection on them than it is on me.”
Yesterday Mr Dutton also held a media opportunity in Strathpine, about half an hour from Brisbane, which journalists were invited to shortly before — though he was not asked about the fundraiser.
Flood traps Dutton inside Dickson home
Mr Dutton told Sky News he was currently stuck inside his home in his electorate of Dickson, with water over his front gate.
“There are a lot of people who are waking up to a flooded bedroom, or lounge room or backyard this morning, there was a hell of a lot of rain overnight,” he said.
“It was as predicted and it’s no less shocking than what we see in other parts of northern NSW and the Gold Coast … hopefully it recedes quickly.”
The prime minister has so far held back from openly criticising Mr Dutton’s Sydney visit, but yesterday frontbencher Murray Watt, who is also a Queenslander, said Mr Dutton was “filling Liberal Party money bags while his own community was filling sandbags”.
“I think [that] says a lot about him,” Senator Watt told ABC’s Insiders.
“He jetted off to a fundraiser at Sydney Harbourside this week when his community was actually trying to get prepared for this event.”
