Michael McCormack and his wife flew to Melbourne on a VIP government jet before the Melbourne Cup, celebrated in the marquee of gambling giant Tabcorp, billed taxpayers for their return flights, and justified the trip by reannouncing a three-year-old funding pledge for a sports hall at an event that dismayed local councillors.
The deputy prime minister, a regular at the races, was last year given tickets by Tabcorp to attend Flemington’s exclusive Birdcage section with his wife Catherine Shaw, alongside a host of other ministers, gambling executives, and Australia’s richest woman, mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.