Federal election 2025: Anthony Albanese boasted to donors he will win election with enlarged majority

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told wealthy donors he expects the Labor Party to win four extra seats in the Federal Election, increasing its majority from two to six.

That’s despite a number of commentators predicting neither major party will win a majority of lower house seats in the election, which is due by the end of May.

Mr Albanese told paying guests at a small fundraiser at Aria, one of Sydney’s most expensive restaurants, on Sunday that Labor would win four seats in Queensland, two in Tasmania and one in Western Australia, offsetting losses in Victoria, according to a source briefed on a speech.

The Prime Minister sounded energetic and enthusiastic about the campaign, the source said.

He predicted the Liberal Party would lose the seats of Wannon in Victoria, which is held by shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan, and Sturt in South Australia, which is held by backbencher James Stevens, according to the source.

Both face candidates financed by Climate 200, the fundraising company controlled by the corporate heir and renewable-energy advocate Simon Holmes à Court.

Mr Albanese’s prediction is much more optimistic than most opinion polls and betting markets, which say no party is likely to win a majority. Sportsbet puts the odds of a Labor victory at 2.1-to-1 and a Coalition win at 1.7-to-1.

But the comments reflect the Government’s campaign priorities. The biggest individual project promised by the government this year is $7.2 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway from Brisbane to Cairns.

Mr Albanese has also repeatedly expressed his closeness to West Australian premier Roger Cook.

While polls suggest the election is narrowing, Victoria remains a disaster zone for Labor because of perceptions of mismanagement by the State government. One recent poll estimated about one in four Victorians will vote Labor.

Other polls suggest the Labor Party is in trouble in NSW’s Hunter Valley, where the Government may have suffered from being perceived to be hostile to the coal industry.

A spokeswoman for Mr Albanese did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Mr Albanese was in the Brisbane seat of Griffith, one of the seats the Labor Party hopes to win from the Greens

Liberal leader Peter Dutton was in the Perth seat of Curtin, where he called for the quick approval of a big gas project planned by Woodside Energy Group.

The seat is held by independent Kate Chaney, whose father Michael Chaney was chairman of Woodside until 2016.

$100,000 dinner

Sunday’s dinner cost guests $10,000 each and raised an estimated $100,000 for the Labor Party.

The attendees included David and Cathy Harris, the founders of Sydney’s Harris Farm grocery chain.

One of their sons, Lachlan Harris, was a press secretary for Labor’s last prime minister, Kevin Rudd.

The restaurant, which overlooks the Sydney Opera House and sells $10,000 bottles of Krug champagne, is owned by celebrity chef Matt Moran and Bruce Solomon, a leading Jewish Sydney businessman.

Last year the Albanese Government appointed Mr Solomon to the board of the Bundanon Arts Museum near Nowra, NSW, which was created from the country estate of the late artist Arthur Boyd.

Another of Mr Solomon’s restaurants, Chiswick, was defaced in November with anti-Semitic graffiti as part of a wave of attacks prompted by the war in Israel and Gaza.