Labor has accused Liberal MP Jason Wood of misusing his parliamentary office as a “fundraising vehicle for the Liberal party”, but the Victorian assistant minister claims he has acted within the guidelines.

In question time on Wednesday, Labor targeted Wood over a party fundraising event advertised under the banner of the Pinnacle Club, a registered associated entity linked to the Liberal party that raised $127,000 in 2017-18.



According to documents lodged with the Australian Electoral Commission, the address, telephone number and email addresses for the financial controller of the Pinnacle Club belong to Wood’s electoral office.

Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, said the use of the electoral office for fundraising activities were a “clear breach of ministerial standards”.

“Jason Wood has been caught out using his parliamentary office as a fundraising vehicle for the Liberal party,” Marles said. “This is about the prime minister’s integrity and the type of government he wants to run [and] the prime minister, Scott Morrison, needs to explain why this isn’t a breach of ministerial standards.

“Australian voters expect basic standards of conduct from elected officials and what appears to be going on here clearly looks like it fails the pub test.”

According to the ministerial standards, which also apply to assistant ministers such as Wood, “ministers and their staff are provided with resources and facilities at public expense for the effective conduct of public business”.

Late on Wednesday, a spokesperson for office of Jason Wood MP issued a statement saying Wood “manages his offices and expenses within the guidelines”.

“Resources provided for contacting a member or their staff, such as email addresses, PO boxes etc. can be listed as contact details where parliamentarians or their staff are reporting to regulators such as the Australian Electoral Commission,” the statement said.

“It is not unusual for employees to provide their work contact details so that they can be reached during business hours for activities outside of their usual hours of work.

“This is a desperate stunt from Labor today who have done exactly the same thing in the way they list addresses for reporting as in the case of Alicia Payne, Terri Butler and even Graham Perrett when he was holding a fundraiser for Anthony Albanese.”

The examples provided by Wood are fundraising pages that list the MP’s electorate office address or email.

In question time on Wednesday, the prime minister said that he had seen “no information” that would suggest Wood had breached ministerial standards.

“I have learned over a long period of time that when coming to the despatch box, to the allegations made by those opposite, that I have never taken them at their word,” Morrison said.

“From this very feeble opposition, from this very lame opposition … is the attempt to distract frankly from their own feebleness and their own lameness by seeking to smear other members of this house.”