After Taylor Swift plays to 80000, the PM will be off to a private Katy ...
Coles executives were initially expected to attend, but a spokeswoman for the supermarket said it would have no presence.
Visy and Pratt’s personal media adviser did not respond to questions about the event at the magnate’s famous Raheen mansion in the inner-east Melbourne suburb of Kew.
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“Anthony Pratt … looks forward to welcoming you on Saturday night for dinner to celebrate Australia’s food and beverage manufacturing industries, featuring a live performance by Katy Perry,” an invitation to the event, seen by this masthead, states.
The sources familiar with the event said Pratt had paid Perry about $1.5 million to travel to Melbourne. She is not holding any public performances in Australia.
Pratt hosted a similar event in 2022 attended by then-prime minister Scott Morrison, Barnaby Joyce and Josh Frydenberg. Performers Kylie Minogue and Keith Urban have appeared at previous Pratt events.
While the attendees at these events do not pay a fee or donation to a political party, Pratt usually makes a personal donation to the political party to coincide with the event, according to Liberal and Labor sources aware of previous iterations.
Pratt has previously boasted about his ability to use his wealth to curry favour with powerful figures, describing his riches as his “superpower”.
An October exposé in this masthead showed Pratt claimed on covert recordings that he had donated $1 million to the Voice referendum’s Yes campaign because he had fielded a request to do so from a senior adviser to Albanese.
The report showed Pratt hired former prime ministers Tony Abbott, on a retainer of $8000 a month, and Paul Keating, on $25,000 a month, to provide political advice. “What I’m trying to do is network with people who can be useful,” Pratt said in a leaked recording of a conversation published in this masthead’s October report.
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