Over the past two decades, Australian prime ministers have become reliable guests of the McGrath Foundation’s high tea, the high-powered annual fundraiser on day three of the Pink Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was one of two glaring omissions from those who showed at Tuesday’s function.

Albanese, along with his Communications and Sport Minister Anika Wells, steered clear of the SCG amid mounting pressure on Labor to launch a federal inquiry into last month’s Bondi Beach terror attack. Instead, Albanese travelled to flood-ravaged Far North Queensland.

Happier times: Anthony Albanese at the Pink Test last year.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on his absence. Wells didn’t even respond to requests for comment about her absence.

Albanese would not have had to look far for a reason to avoid the SCG on Tuesday. He only had to think back to the immeasurable failure of his predecessor, Scott Morrison, to read the mood of the nation in 2020, as large sections of the community........

© The Sydney Morning Herald