PETER VAN ONSELEN: Democracy is being prostituted before our eyes. If Albanese wants to know why voters think the system is rigged, the answer is parked outside this $50m mansion

By PETER VAN ONSELEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 04:27, 23 July 2026 | Updated: 04:27, 23 July 2026 Anthony Albanese claims to understand why Australians are losing faith in politics and turning towards populism. He might start by examining his own conduct. On Monday night, the Prime Minister's taxpayer-funded car rolled through the gates of Mandalay, a Point Piper mansion valued at well north of $50 million. Albo was there for an intimate Labor fundraiser attended by Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn, former Victorian premier Dan Andrews, former Future Fund chairman David Murray, former ASIC chairman James Shipton and former HSBC Australia CEO Antony Shaw. And the assembled titans of the corporate world may be the least concerning aspect of what went down in Point Piper. The host, 25-year-old Felix Lee, is the son of Chinese-born billionaire property developer and casino high roller Phillip Dong Fang Lee. The Australian Financial Review reported that the younger Lee had dangled a $1 million donation to secure the PM's presence. Labor disputes the figure, suggesting the evening raised closer to $100,000. Either way Albo was like a moth to a flame given the dollars that were being dangled in front of him. The principal problem with what transpired doesn't turn on the exact dollar amount. Whether the price tag carried five zeroes or six, the transaction remains the same: Albo's public office was the bait and private access to him was the prize. Yet sections of the media are all but ignoring this story. There is no evidence Albo sold a specific government decision, but none is required to recognise how dodgy this looks. The favour being purchased was the audience itself. Access - if not influence - was quite literally bought. The Prime Minister's office dismissed the outcry with a boilerplate deflection: 'We don't comment on private meetings'. Are they kidding? It added that everything would be declared 'as is appropriate'. This was no private meeting. Albo wasn't invited for his dinner party conversation, or his willingness to play 'date, marry, shag'. Had he ceased being PM that morning, the business titans wouldn't have gathered and Labor would not have received the money that it did. Albo's office was the nightly attraction. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sat down for dinner this week with Felix Lee, the son of a Chinese-born property developer. Above, the PM is seen toasting Joe Biden during a state dinner at the White House in 2023  Taxpayers covered the salary, security and transport; the Labor Party collected the proceeds. A PM's time, or that of his ministers, should not be party property to be auctioned off to the highest bidder in corporate Australia or abroad. The optics are compounded by the host. Lee's family office is chaired by former treasurer Joe Hockey and represented by Hockey's lobbying firm, Bondi Partners. Lee became the largest shareholder in in1Bank. APRA, a regulator, reportedly raised concerns about the bank's due diligence surrounding his investments and its source of wealth. The bank subsequently exited the industry and APRA revoked its licence. None of this proves wrongdoing by Lee, but it obliterates the pretence that this was an inconsequential social engagement. What was discussed? Were business or regulatory issues raised? Were any representations made? Has further contact or assistance been requested or offered? The identity and eligibility of whoever provided or promised the money must also be disclosed sooner rather than later. Lee's citizenship or residency shouldn't be assumed from his ethnicity or his father's Chinese origins. But foreign political donations are prohibited, making it essential for Labor to identify whether the money came from Lee personally, his family office, another company or several connected individuals. If any payment came from a foreign national or foreign entity, this would escalate from tawdry cash for access politics to a potential breach of Australian law and national sovereignty. The timing is particularly cynical. Labor's new electoral rules take effect on January 1. They will cap annual donations from one donor to a single recipient at $50,000, reduce the disclosure threshold to $5,000 and require much faster reporting. Until December 31, donations remain uncapped and the threshold is $17,300. On Monday night, the Prime Minister's taxpayer-funded car rolled through the gates of Mandalay, a Point Piper mansion valued at well north of $50million The reported $1 million, if provided by one donor to one Labor recipient, would be 20 times the incoming limit. A $10,000 conference package sits conveniently below the present disclosure threshold unless aggregated with other payments. The Point Piper dinner occurred during the final six month window in which Labor can harvest enormous contributions under the system it has already legislated to replace. It resembles a closing down sale for big donors: uncapped cheques and premium political access available before the new rules bite. Labor's promise that everything will be declared 'in the usual way' is a farce. Under the AEC's transitional timetable, returns covering this period do not have to be published until April 22 next year. By then, the event will be nine months old. Any subsequent representations, meetings or decisions may already have occurred, and public attention will have shifted. This is not accountability. Labor knows today who paid, how much was received or promised, who attended and what the event was intended to achieve. If disclosure is inevitable, there is no legitimate reason to withhold those facts until April next year. Nor was Mandalay an isolated event. It was simply the premium version of a business model Labor operates openly. And - frankly - so does the Coalition, but to prove the point of why these events occur, it's far easier to raise big dollars when in government rather than struggling in opposition. At the Labor Party's National Conference in Adelaide this week, business representatives are being charged $10,000 to attend through a separately managed program. Labor members and affiliated unionists can observe proceedings for free, while community organisations and non-affiliated unions pay $550. The price and benefits provided to business observers are discreetly omitted from the public conference website. But those who attend get face time with ministers. Again, buying access. In May, Labor charged $5,500 a head for its budget night fundraiser, with a minister assigned to every corporate table. Business people were not paying thousands of dollars for the chicken or a conference lanyard. They were purchasing proximity to executive government. At the absolute minimum, this is the prostitution of democracy: authority temporarily entrusted to politicians by the public is being used to fill partisan coffers. The Prime Minister's executive dinner was hosted by 25-year-old Felix Lee (pictured). The Australian Financial Review reported that the younger Lee had dangled a $1 million donation to secure the PM's presence. Labor disputes the figure, suggesting the evening raised closer to $100,000. Either way Albo was like a moth to a flame Influence rarely arrives as a crude exchange of cash for a signature. It grows through familiarity, private conversations and the ability to frame an issue before opponents even know it's being considered. It is the privilege of putting a human face to a commercial request and having a telephone call returned. The absence of a provable quid pro quo doesn't vindicate the arrangement. It explains why selling the access is so insidious. Political equality becomes a fiction when most citizens gets an automated acknowledgement from an electorate office while the big end of town buys an evening with Albo. The same politicians who climb onto every available high horse to lecture the private sector about transparency are doing this. The sanctimony is nauseating. Let a business emit even a whiff of wrongdoing and ministers demand investigations, resignations and accountability. Yet when their own conduct reeks, they suddenly discover an intense devotion to the narrowest possible interpretation of the law. Everything is technically permitted, nothing has been proven, the paperwork will eventually be filed. Politicians who sell themselves this way have forfeited the moral authority to lecture anybody else about integrity. The hypocrisy is also rank. Last year, Labor savaged Peter Dutton for attending a fundraiser at Justin Hemmes' harbourside mansion. Which brings us to the double standards of how parts of the media report these things. When Albo appeared on the ABC's flagship AM program on Thursday morning, the fundraiser had already been pursued by three national news organisations. Yet he was not asked once about the sale of his own time. The national broadcaster prides itself on setting the agenda. Instead, it allowed the PM to set it for them. Our ABC wanted to know whether artificial intelligence could hack a company, but neglected to ask whether money was hacking access to Australian government. Albo will now use Labor's conference, held under the banner 'An economy that works for everyone', to tell financially stressed Australians that he understands their frustration while warning them against the false remedies of populism. If the Prime Minister genuinely wants to know why voters believe the system is rigged from the inside, the answer is parked outside Mandalay. People watch leaders preach equality while ushering the wealthy through a separate entrance. They are told to trust institutions that conceal the names of those purchasing proximity to the most powerful people in the country. Labor should disclose the full details immediately.