Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

Yes. Another thing we know about this matter is that not one cent was paid by the Liberal Party of Australia to the Australian taxpayer or to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet for the use of the venue. Not one red cent was paid for the use of the venue. So you cannot get away with arguing this was full cost recovery, because the Australian taxpayer has, effectively, through their funding of Kirribilli House, subsidised your fundraiser and your venue. Kirribilli House is not a Liberal Party function centre, but that is how this Prime Minister is treating it.

What else do we know? We know that the Commonwealth Electoral Act requires in-kind donations to be disclosed. We know that that is a provision of the Electoral Act. What was this? This certainly was a free venue—I note Senator Minchin in question time today said he may come back to us on this—although, arguably, there may have been some other in-kind donation associated with the cost, because no-one in Australia can believe that you only pay $9.46 for this kind of food and only $6.50 for this kind of wine over two hours. We know that the Electoral Act requires disclosure of in-kind donations and we also know that the Australian Electoral Commission is investigating whether or not there is something here that needs to be disclosed.