Nothing inappropriate about billionaire’s barbecue, Andrews says
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he didn’t discuss the Fox family’s business interests during a five-hour barbecue at billionaire Lindsay Fox’s Portsea mansion last weekend.
During a press conference on Thursday morning, Andrews said it was wrong to suggest anything inappropriate had occurred at the private event at which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also made an appearance. The barbecue was held on Saturday afternoon before Albanese flew out to the flood-affected Kimberley region in Western Australia.
Lindsay Fox with Premier Daniel Andrews in June at the site of the Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer CentreCredit:Luis Enrique Ascui
“I deal with many, many people and I deal with everybody appropriately,” Andrews said.
“It was a barbecue, and I’ll boldly predict that it won’t be the only barbecue I go to this summer.
“I know there’s a whole lot of people out there looking to get an interview with the steps from the beach house [where I injured my back]. And now they can look for an interview from the gas bottle.”
Andrews, who arrived at the barbecue by car, told reporters he had nothing to declare and that he wouldn’t elaborate on his movements because of security concerns.
Earlier on Thursday, The Age revealed Albanese had flown to the Portsea property in Lindsay Fox’s private helicopter for the barbecue following his official business in Victoria.
Albanese travelled to Geelong on Saturday for a morning meeting and press conference with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. About an hour later, just before noon, he boarded Fox’s helicopter for the 10-minute flight to the trucking magnate’s seaside compound on the clifftops of Portsea.
The prime minister took time out for a swim on Point King Beach. After the nearly six-hour visit, he returned to Avalon Airport shortly after 6pm, again on the Fox family’s helicopter.
Andrews’ comments echo those made by Albanese during a press conference in Rockhampton, Queensland, on Wednesday where he told Channel Nine: “I have private meetings all the time. And I have private meetings which are private meetings.”
Deputy federal opposition leader Sussan Ley has since criticised the prime minister for attending the event.
“While communities in WA were trying to escape rising floodwaters, the prime minister was boarding a private helicopter to attend a barbecue with a billionaire,” she said in a statement.
“As opposition leader during the pandemic, Anthony Albanese was very fond of saying a prime minister had only two jobs [the COVID vaccination rollout and the management of international quarantine]. Flying in on helicopters for luxury barbecues to the neglect of a national crisis was never one of the jobs that Anthony Albanese mentioned.”
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