I Wouldn’t Take Ten Thousand Dollars to Sit Through Dinner with Albanese!

The news that business figures paid roughly $10,000 a head for the privilege of dining with Anthony Albanese in Adelaide is less surprising than it is revealing. Among the guests were some of his sharper critics from the resources sector. Money still talks, even when the conversation is likely to be strained. What is more striking is the price itself, and the assumption that access to the Prime Minister is worth that sum.

I would not take $10,000 to attend. In fact, I would require a substantially larger figure to compensate for the time, the forced politeness, and the knowledge that the evening's real purpose is party fundraising dressed up as dialogue. The reasons are straightforward.

First, the product on offer is not especially valuable. Albanese's government has specialised in higher taxes, heavier regulation, energy policy that raises costs while delivering uncertain reliability, and a general posture that treats private enterprise as a problem to be managed rather than the source of prosperity. Paying a five-figure sum for the chance to explain these realities to the man responsible for them has the logic of paying to argue with a brick wall that also sends you the bill.

Second, the optics are of a political class that has grown comfortable with a two-tier system of access. Ordinary citizens get press releases and staged events. Those who can write large cheques get the private room, the longer conversation, and the sense that their concerns might be registered. That this includes critics does not redeem the practice; it simply shows that even opposition can be monetised. The price of entry remains the point.

Third, there is the cumulative record. Years of policy that have left Australia with sticky inflation, weak productivity, housing shortages exacerbated by high migration, and an energy transition that feels more like managed decline than coherent strategy. Sitting across a table from the chief salesman of that record, while contributing to the machine that sustains it, requires a level of detachment or self-interest I do not possess.

Some will say this is how politics works, that every party does it, that refusing the invitation is pure theatre. All true, and beside the point. The question is not whether the practice is bipartisan. The question is whether the company is worth the price of admission. On the evidence of policy outcomes, rhetorical style, and the gap between campaign promises and governing reality, the answer is no. Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money to spend confirming that the gap remains wide. I would rather keep both the money and the evening.