E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 27 JULY 2026
Topics: Political donations; commonwealth games
NATALIE BARR: Let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and Nationals leader Matt Canavan. Good morning to both of you. Tanya, why is the PM getting wined and dined by the son of someone accused of deceiving our authorities with large financial transactions?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: The Prime Minister went into this in quite a bit of detail yesterday, so I'm not going to go over that again. What I am going to say, Nat, is I'm super proud of the changes that we're making to our electoral donation disclosure laws, which start from the first of January that would, first of all, make this impossible. What they do is say no one can make a donation larger than $50,000, and secondly, would have disclosure in pretty much real-time at the moment. Sometimes it can take months before details of functions like this or any donation becomes public. We're doing that. In just a few days, they'll become public. And this is the bit that I'm most proud of. We're actually putting disclosure, sorry, spending caps onto campaigns. Like, at the moment, what you see in the US, for example, is this huge race to do fundraising because everybody wants to outspend their opponents. By putting spending caps on campaigns, I think we have a much better chance of reducing the need to do this sort of fundraising.
BARR: Tanya, I don't think the Prime Minister did go into detail about this yesterday. From what I saw, and correct me if I'm wrong, he spent several minutes batting back questions about whether he was even there, saying he goes to lots of different people and gets lots of donations. He didn't seem to remember whether he was even at that dinner. So, you know, I'll ask you again, do you think it's appropriate that he was at that dinner?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I don't think that's fair at all. I don't think that's fair. He very clearly said, yeah, it's been reported I was there. I think the amounts that have been reported are wildly inaccurate. I think the Sydney Morning Herald had something today saying that less than $100,000 had been raised at the dinner. So, nothing near the numbers that you're talking about. And I think he clarified that he was there, but he did also say, and this is fair, Nat, he's the Prime Minister, he goes to dinners every night of the week, just about. And he meets with people all the time. It is actually part of the job--
BARR: Exactly. But in this instance--
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: -- to hear from business people.
BARR: And we appreciate, and Australians appreciate that all parties have donors, big and small, donate to them. And we totally understand that. But in this instance, someone who was being pursued by the tax authority, we understand, for nearly $300 million in unpaid taxes and then went onto a payment scheme involving, I think, the house he was at, allegedly, that's what's in print this morning. Do you think it's a good idea that he went to that house? Would you have gone?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I think the point the Prime Minister was making when he says he goes to functions all the time and the night before he was in a room full of 750 people at a dinner, is you don't know everything about everyone before you walk into these situations.
BARR: Yeah, but this is the house.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And the guy that you're talking about wasn't at the dinner. He was at his son's place, not at, his son was there, not him. So, I do. Look, I understand why people are concerned. I think it's really good that we're increasing transparency. This sort of thing will become apparent within just days. We're lowering the amount of money that any individual donor can give. We're changing the disclosure threshold. So, when we were last in government, we said, you have to disclose money above, you know, a certain amount that was donated. The Liberals and Nationals, when they came back to government, they changed that. They made it more secretive. We're going back to having something that is more public. So, anything that's donated above $5,000 will have to be disclosed within a few days. There'll be limits on how much you can disclose and most importantly, limits on how much we can spend, because that's how we get the money influence out of our campaigns.
BARR: Matt, is there anything wrong with going to this wealthy billionaire's house and, you know, getting a donation?
MATT CANAVAN: Well, look, now, political parties raise money, that's for sure, but this does stink. And at the very least here, the Prime Minister needs to explain why he didn't know these issues. Apparently, he said he didn't know these issues. Well, it's at least a very big failing of his office not to properly assess and do due diligence on the people he's going to meet at someone's house. And that being the case, what the Labor Party should clearly do here is just give back the money or not take the donation. Not sure the status of it, but just don't take it. And that would help restore integrity and respect in the Prime Minister's office. And if these laws that Tanya just spent minutes deflecting your questions about are so good, they're so good to come into effect January the first. Why don't they come into effect now? And just don't take this money. Just do that, just do that. And that clears it all up.
BARR: Should he take the money back? Tanya, is it a million dollars or whatever?
CANAVAN: Just do it now.
BARR: Should he give the money back, Tanya?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: These are all issues for the party. But I'd say it's actually pretty ironic. You got Matt's best friend, Gina Rinehart, who donated a million-dollar plane to One Nation.
CANAVAN: Yeah okay, what’s wrong [inaudible]
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You've got Pauline Hampton overseas, meeting with convicted criminals --
BARR: [Indistinct] bigger than your donation today, isn't it?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: -convicted criminals--
BARR: You're the government.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The National Party, the Liberals.
BARR: Could you just tell us, should he accept the money?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Take plenty of big donations.
BARR: Everyone's getting donations left, right and centre.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's not a matter for me, it's a matter for the party.
BARR: Would you have gone, Tanya? Would you have gone to the House?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I certainly wasn't invited. But I'm interested to know whether you, Nat and Matt there think that Pauline Hanson meeting with a convicted criminal in the UK somehow deserves the same sort of scrutiny. Because that seemed to--
BARR: There's a lot of scrutiny. There was a whole program on it last week.
CANAVAN: What a deflection. I don't think she took money from him. I don't think she took any money from Tommy.
BARR: There's definitely been scrutiny on that. And here I am in the middle just asking the questions. And, you know, this is the Prime Minister and we're just asking whether he should give the money back. Do you know whether he's accepted the money, Tanya?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's a matter for the party. It doesn't go to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister doesn't see a dollar of it. This is a matter for the party.
BARR: Okay, okay. Okay, look, while we're wrapping up that one, we're been dipping in and out of the Commonwealth Games coverage. Our wonderful athletes have been doing so well. Tanya, would you like to lead off and give them a cheer?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We are so proud of you. Great work. Keep it up.
BARR: How about you, Matt?
CANAVAN: Well, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.
BARR: Matt, you can do better than that.
CANAVAN: I was going to do. Oi, oi, oi. I'll do it then. I love. Great work from the Aussies.
BARR: Okay, you know what? I think we'll stick with our cheerleaders and their pom poms. Thank you.
ENDS
