Queensland’s corruption watchdog will consider whether to investigate allegations raised in parliament that Liberal National Party MP Warren Entsch helped a political donor get a Covid vaccine in the middle of the pandemic when doses were in short supply.
Queensland Health on Monday confirmed it had referred the matter to the state crime and corruption commission (CCC).
Entsch labelled the claim “nonsense”. He denied “all allegations of wrongdoings or inappropriate actions”.
In question time on Monday, the federal health minister, Mark Butler, was asked whether he was aware of anyone getting preferential access to vaccines. In response, Butler referred to reports in the Australian that named Alex Sekler, a Queensland property developer.
Butler told parliament there was understandable concern over reports that Entsch arranged for “a local property developer, aged in his 60s, to travel to Thursday Island, to receive a Pfizer dose in that very month of July”, in 2021 when Australia was short of doses.
According to donor reports, Sekler’s company Liral Holdings donated $304,000 to the LNP in 2021-22 and he personally donated $13,000 in 2019.
Butler said the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) advice at the time was “that Pfizer not be administered to people over the age of 50”.
AstraZeneca was the preferred vaccine for those over 50 until June when Atagi updated its guidelines to those over 60.
“[There is] concern that he was taking a dose that was intended to protect the vulnerable members of that community on Thursday Island, and concern that unnecessary travel to First Nations communities exposed those communities to a risk of infection,” Butler said in parliament.
“Now, the member for Leichhardt’s own colleagues have reported on a large donation of $304,000 from this property developer, $4,000 for just one dinner attended by just five people, some dinner it must have been.”
The Australian reported the dinner was attended by then prime minister Scott Morrison.
“The member has questions to answer, at a time when his own government was so concerned about protecting vulnerable communities, and other Australians were expected to queue patiently for short dose vaccines and not to charter a private plane to travel to Thursday Island to access one of theirs,” Butler said.
In parliament, Entsch vowed to “respond to that nonsense”. He said it was wrong to imply “some sort of quid pro quo” in relation to “a fine gentleman who happened to have made a donation”.
Sekler had, the Queensland MP said, made donations to Queensland Health including one of $650,000 to help them prepare for Covid. He was then approached by a health department representative to see if he would donate an MRI machine to the Torres Strait hospital.
“That is the reason why he approached me to know about protocols in travelling up to the Torres Strait, because he was invited up there to actually consider making a donation,” Entsch said.
“He mentioned he was wanting to get [a vaccine], I rang the hospital and asked if it was available, they said yes, I said what’s the protocol, they said if you present we’ve got plenty of it, in fact we’ve got quite a bit that’s going out of date.”
In a later statement, Entsch said that, as the member for Leichhardt, he was assisting a constituent. He blamed the Queensland state government for a “politically motivated attack”.
“I completely deny all allegations of wrongdoings or inappropriate actions,” he said. “I won’t be making any further comment as this is now before [the crime and corruption commission].”
Comment was sought from Sekler and the CCC.
