Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is facing scrutiny amid reports he left his Queensland electorate staring down the barrel of a cyclone for an interstate dash to a secret Liberal fundraiser.

Dutton spoke to media at Queensland’s Emergency Management Centre in Brisbane early on Tuesday before flying to Sydney for a community event and a fundraiser at the waterfront Vaucluse home of billionaire pub and club baron Justin Hemmes.

As he criticised any suggestion that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might call the federal election this weekend as “tin-eared”, a report emerged in The Australian Financial Review of his interstate trip.

Dutton said Albanese would be ignoring community concerns if he decided to call an election in the days after Alfred hits south-eastern Queensland and northern NSW.

“There will be people waiting for waters to retreat, there will be swiftwater rescues, there will be people cleaning out their houses or their businesses and some people will have lost everything,” he told Brisbane radio station 4BC.

“To go to [an] election at this stage, at that time, I think the Prime Minister would have a tin ear to do that.

“I think what people probably want from their Prime Minister is governing, not campaigning, at a time like this.”

On Wednesday, Dutton spoke to 4BC again, by phone.

“I haven’t taped up the windows, I haven’t been that organised, but it’s something we should consider, actually,” he said.

“I’ve got an elderly aunt who lives not too far away from us, so going to do some sandbagging at her place later on today.”

Albanese has been in Queensland since Tuesday as the threat of Tropical Cyclone Alfred has grown. He earlier cancelled a trip to Western Australia ahead of that state’s election on Saturday.

He has repeatedly hosed down speculation about the date of the federal poll, which must be held by May 17.

Albanese has attended emergency briefings on the looming natural disaster and appeared more than once with Queensland’s LNP Premier, David Crisafulli.

“I was due to travel to Western Australia on Friday and Saturday, but chances are I intend to stay on the east coast,” he said on Wednesday.”

Albanese has refused to criticise Dutton’s trip to Sydney, leaving that to his ministers. On Thursday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers – another Queensland MP – told 4BC the reports were “very disappointing”.

“That’s for Peter Dutton to explain. I went to that briefing on Tuesday at [the emergency management centre in] Kedron and he was leaving as I was arriving,” he said.

“But I assure all your listeners and I assure you that our focus has been on the disaster. I hope his has been as well, because we all need all shoulders to the wheel. Every level of government, both sides of politics, need to be doing what we can.”

Justin Hemmes and girlfriend Madeline Holtznagel. Photo: AAP

Dutton’s electorate of Dickson is on Brisbane’s north-western outskirts, and likely to be in Alfred’s path when it makes landfall on Friday or Saturday.

His office is yet to comment on the reports. However, Dutton’s spokesman has confirmed to News Limited that he went to the Hemnes fundraiser and said he attended earlier cyclone briefings.

Among his challengers in Dickson is community independent Ellie Smith. She said residents would be “astounded” that their MP had “ditched them overnight to fly to a harbourside fundraising event in Sydney”.

“The people of Dickson have been told they are facing one of the most extreme and devastating natural disasters to hit the region in a generation,” she said.

“Schools have closed, businesses have shut and people are doing everything they can to prepare for the worst and protect their families, loved ones and neighbours.

“At times like these, we need community leaders who will stick by us, and do whatever they can to provide support and help wherever they can. It is disappointing that Peter Dutton’s priorities were elsewhere, and not with us here in Dickson.”

Meanwhile, speculation about a possible election date continues.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the safety of residents in Queensland and NSW was the priority. However, the government needed to be transparent about election timing and whether it would still hand down a budget, she said.

A budget is pencilled in for March 25, but could be cancelled if an election is called first.

“The Australian public deserves the level of transparency as to what is actually in the books,” Hume told Seven’s Sunrise.

-with AAP