Anthony Albanese attended a $10,000 a head fundraising dinner at The Mandalay, the $40 million Point Piper mansion at 87 Wolseley Road that is the family home of Sydney businessman Felix Lee, 25, on Monday, 20 July, and The Australian Financial Review's Rear Window column reports the event was premised on a promised $1 million donation to the Labor Party.
The Financial Review also reports that the last public document on the property shows the Australian Taxation Office sitting on its deed of security. The Prime Minister raised party money inside a home the Commonwealth of Australia appears to hold a claim over, a claim that traces back to his own tax office pursuing the host's parents for $272.9 million in unpaid tax.
This is the same Prime Minister who asked "Did she, though?" in June when told Pauline Hanson had raised $2.2 million from ordinary Australians, money One Nation put through an independent audit and published. Hanson's campaign ran in the open, with a running public tally and an audit at the end. It has now cleared its target, with $5,029,145 raised from 79,065 Australians against a $5 million goal, every dollar of it declared on a page anyone can watch tick over. Albanese's dinner was around eight people behind sandstone walls, and he's refused to discuss it since.
Matt Comyn, Daniel Andrews and David Murray joined the PM at Felix Lee's table
The guest list, as reported by the Financial Review, included Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn, former CBA boss and onetime Future Fund chairman David Murray, former ASIC chairman James Shipton, former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and former HSBC Australia chief Antony Shaw.
The dinner was organised by Lee, who runs the privately held Lee Family Office, chaired by former treasurer Joe Hockey. A source familiar with the event told the Financial Review the promise secured the Prime Minister's attendance, and the Prime Minister's attendance drew the bankers.
A Labor spokesman said it was "not correct" that there was a $1 million promise from Lee, telling the masthead: "All of Labor's donations are disclosed in line with the Commonwealth Electoral Act." news.com.au reported it understood the event raised less than $100,000. Neither the party nor the Prime Minister's office has said what the real figure is.
"We don't comment on private meetings," a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said. "Donations are a matter for the Labor Party and will be disclosed in the usual way, as is appropriate."
The ATO appears on the deed of security for the house Albanese fundraised in
In 2021 the ATO froze the assets of Lee's parents, Phillip Dong Fang Lee and Xiaobei Shi, as it pursued the pair for $272.9 million in unpaid taxes. A settlement was reportedly agreed in 2022.
According to the Financial Review, at the start of 2023 the ATO appeared on the deed of security for The Mandalay alongside two companies connected to Shi, with the document certified by a director in the ATO's frontline compliance, strategic recovery and insolvency unit. There may have been changes since, the masthead noted, but none have been added to the file. An ATO spokesman declined to comment, citing confidentiality laws.
Shi is the sole name on the residential title of the house, which the couple bought for $39.9 million in 2015. The Commonwealth Bank, whose chief executive was at the dinner table, also holds a mortgage over the property. The Lee family is a CBA client.
Phillip Dong Fang Lee put $2.2 billion through The Star's baccarat tables
Phillip Lee was one of The Star's biggest high rollers and became the star witness at Adam Bell SC's 2022 inquiry into the Sydney casino.
The inquiry heard he was the biggest user of Chinese UnionPay debit cards that gamblers swiped in the casino's hotel lobby, with the funds then made available on the gaming floor, allegedly disguised as hotel expenses. Under their terms of service the cards were reserved for foreign punters. Lee was a local resident.
An internal casino spreadsheet recorded $39,960,000 swiped from his card into the casino over six months across 2015 and 2016, with $31,935,000 of it coming back out in cheques that were not winnings, an amount Bell described as "remarkable".
"The case study demonstrates that there were clear money laundering risks to which the Star failed to respond," Bell wrote. "In particular, there is no evidence that indicates The Star was checking the source of Mr Lee's funds."
The failings identified were the casino's. Bell's report made no finding of impropriety of any kind against Phillip Lee, and it was never put to him that he engaged in money laundering or any other improper conduct. There's no suggestion the Lee Family Office's money comes from gambling, and no allegation of wrongdoing of any kind against Felix Lee, who the Financial Review reports is described by people who know him as a straight shooter.
The dinner still landed on the eve of Labor's national conference, where a fight over gambling reform sits at the top of the agenda.
"I attend lots of dinners": what Albanese told David Speers when asked directly
The Prime Minister was asked about the dinner on the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday, 26 July.
"Did you attend the home of Felix Lee in Point Piper?" host David Speers asked.
"Look, I attend lots of dinners," Albanese replied.
Pressed again, he said he attends "lots of functions in lots of places, including last night right here".
"Why don't you want to answer that?" Speers asked.
"Well, I do. 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."
Asked whether he knew about the issues surrounding Lee's father, and whether red flags should have been raised, the Prime Minister said: "He wasn't there ... I attend a lot of meetings, functions, with lots of people and talking about people's relatives, even removed from that."
"Well, I'm not aware of those issues," he added. "We declare all of our donations in accordance with the rules. We're transparent about it. I do attend a lot of events and, you know, that is part of the process that occurs. Engaging with people."
Hanson named her donors and filmed the plane. Not one Point Piper guest has to be named
In April, Treasurer Jim Chalmers called Pauline Hanson "a wholly owned subsidiary of" Gina Rinehart, after One Nation was given a Cirrus G7 aircraft. A Hancock Prospecting spokesman confirmed the plane was donated by a Rinehart company. Cirrus lists the model at $1.3 million. Hanson announced it herself, in a video, standing next to it.
One Nation banked another $2 million in cash from three Rinehart associates, and named every one of them. Stockbroker Angus Aitken and his wife Sarah gave $1 million. Hancock Agriculture chief executive Adam Giles gave $500,000. Hancock Energy executive director Ian Plimer gave $500,000. They were photographed holding the novelty cheques.
Every number Labor throws at Hanson comes from something she announced or declared herself. That's the only reason anyone knows it. When One Nation published an audited total, Albanese's response was to publicly doubt it. Nobody at Felix Lee's table has to be named at all.
Labor also sells access to the Prime Minister and his cabinet ministers through its business forum network, with the top tier costing corporates and lobbyists around $110,000, the Financial Review reports. The donation reportedly floated at Point Piper is roughly 10 times that.
Hanson called it out on X on Monday, 27 July. "Look at the Prime Minister squirm and refuse to answer questions about the dinner he attended allegedly in return for a $1 million donation to the Labor Party," she wrote.
"The Prime Minister hits Australians with some of the highest taxes in the world, then dines with the family of a man the tax office reportedly chased for a quarter of a billion in unpaid tax. If Labor didn't have double standards, they wouldn't have any."
Matt Canavan says give the money back. Rex Patrick wants the diaries opened
Nationals leader Matt Canavan told Sunrise the Prime Minister's attendance was a "very big failing of his office" and said the party shouldn't keep the money.
"This does stink," he said. "At the very least here, the Prime Minister needs to explain why he didn't know these issues. What the Labor Party should clearly do here is just give back the money or not take the donation."
Former senator Rex Patrick told News24 host Steve Price the fix is the proactive release of ministerial diaries, as already happens in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT.
"One of the things I'm calling for is the proactive release of ministerial diaries so we can see exactly who is influencing our Prime Minister," Patrick said. "The Prime Minister might well say that he went to this dinner as the leader of the Labor Party, but in actual fact, all the people that went to eat dinner and pay their money, they absolutely went to see the Prime Minister of Australia."
"All of this tends to take place in total darkness with a declaration that follows some time well after the election normally."
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic told News24 the Prime Minister "does not go to just any dinner, and he does not go to just any dinner in a private home of an individual".
"If he's trying to pretend that there's nothing to see here, all of us can see through that," she said. "This is a $40 million waterside mansion, to my understanding, with someone that's had a $270 million issue with the ATO in relation to their taxes. There are significant problems here for the Prime Minister."
Eight people, $10,000 a seat, and not one of them has to be named
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek defended Albanese on Sunrise, pointing to Labor's changes to donation laws that will cap gifts at $50,000 and force disclosure of anything above $5,000 within days.
"The Prime Minister doesn't see a dollar of it. This is a matter for the party," she said.
Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain said politicians from all parties attend fundraisers frequently. "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.
Neither of those rules applied at The Mandalay. The cap and the fast disclosure Plibersek described don't start until 1 January 2027, as the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed on 1 April, after it asked for more time to get its systems ready.
Here's what did apply. A donation only has to be declared if it's worth more than $17,300. A seat at Felix Lee's table cost $10,000. That's under the line, so a guest who paid for one never has to be named.
If someone at that table did give more than $17,300, the public still doesn't find out now. Donations are published once a year in a batch, and the returns covering July aren't due out until February 2028. That's 19 months after the dinner.
Nothing else about the night has to be explained at all.
