IBAC appearance of community leader accused of pocketing $75,000 pushed back

A respected community leader accused of pocketing almost $75,000 in taxpayer funds has been handed a temporary medical exemption that deems him unfit to give evidence the day before he was to appear before an anti-corruption commission.

Hussein Haraco, who founded the Somali Australian Council of Victoria, was due to appear before the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission on Wednesday and Thursday over his alleged involvement in branch stacking on behalf of former minister Adem Somyurek’s Moderate Labor group.

Hussein Haraco has been accused of pocketing thousands of dollars in taxpayer grants. Credit: Chris Hopkins

The news came on Tuesday as IBAC was told of the Moderate Labor faction’s media strategy to confect allegations of racism, invoking the Black Lives Matter movement, when journalists from The Age asked questions last year about the awarding of taxpayer grants to Dr Haraco’s community organisation.

Banyule City Council mayor Rick Garotti testified during Tuesday’s hearings he had been lobbying the government – namely Moderate Labor ministers Mr Somyurek, Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott – on behalf of Dr Haraco’s organisation.

IBAC is investigating allegations of corrupt conduct involving Victorian public officers, including members of Parliament, and that taxpayer-funded staff and grants were misused for factional activities, as first revealed in an Age and 60 Minutes investigation last year. The probe centres around Mr Somyurek and the Moderate Labor group.

The Somali Australian Council of Victoria received $75,000 in 2019 from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation Prevention Partnership Program, which Ms Kairouz was responsible for as Minister for Gaming.

Dr Haraco pocketed almost the entire sum after his factional ally, Cr Garotti, helped him secure the grant, according to evidence uncovered by IBAC.

The community organisation also received $100,000 in taxpayer funds after it “double-counted” expenses, IBAC was told. Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC, said the group would receive, for instance, $2000 for a computer from both the council and the Victorian government, totalling $4000. It would then show the council and the government department identical invoices and ultimately pocket $2000.

“This system of factional patronage, it involved you and others in various acts of dishonesty … it involved you and others engaging in, in various ways, the obtaining of public resources and public funds for factional purposes … it involved looking after factional allies, giving them paid but fictional jobs,” Mr Carr suggested to Cr Garotti.

“And this is all done, isn’t it, in order to pursue power – power for the faction, power within the party, power politically … and it’s the influence that people who have power are able to exercise over these processes that allows them to continue to recruit the likes of you to engage in these sorts of activities, isn’t it?”

Cr Garotti responded: “Correct.”

Cr Garotti told the commission the Moderate Labor faction’s media strategy was to confect allegations of racism when journalists would ask questions about alleged wrongdoing within their group.

In a tapped recording, played during the IBAC hearings, Mr Somyurek and Cr Garotti agreed to invoke the “highly sensitive issue” of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to The Age’s questions about the Somali association and the propriety of grants.

Mr Carr said it was an attempt to “confect racism as an attempt to cower journalists from investigating things you did not want, you and your mentor did not want investigated”.

Cr Garotti agreed with that characterisation.

“I might mention the Black Lives Matter [movement] and young people struggling with their identity and engagement in the community,” Cr Garotti told Mr Somyurek in the tapped phone call.

Mr Somyurek responded: “[Say] I’m sorry, but the black people at the moment are very, it’s a time of high sensitivity, and I’m very sensitive and this is part of racism. Can you go that hard?

“We’re talking about Black Lives Matter, it’s not just the police, it’s journalists as well, it’s media, just go hard ... Just go racism on ’em. Right.”

IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich speaks during the Operation Watts public hearing in Melbourne.Credit: AAP

Mr Somyurek said responding this way would “relieve a lot of stress off the Somalis” because “that’s where the recruiting is”.

The opposition has called for an independent audit of all grants the Andrews government has awarded through the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation following the allegations raised during the IBAC hearings.

A tearful Cr Garotti finished his evidence on Tuesday afternoon by saying he hoped the anti-corruption examination would finally change the culture within the Australian Labor Party.

“I’m not excusing my behaviour in the party, but hopefully for a young person coming through the ranks in the future, it’s a better culture, and they don’t get caught up,” he said.

Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Carr, SC, has been questioning witnesses. Credit: AAP

An adviser to Mr Scott, during his tenure as Multicultural Affairs Minister, also agreed to “manipulate” the grant process to secure funding for the Somali Australian Council of Victoria, Cr Garotti told IBAC.

Premier Daniel Andrews would not comment specifically on the allegations raised during the hearings, including Cr Garotti’s testimony on Monday in which he said the President of the Legislative Council, Nazih Elasmar, was part of Moderate Labor’s branch stacking operation in Melbourne’s north. When asked if he had confidence in Mr Elasmar, the Premier said: “Yes, I do. And so does the Legislative Council or he wouldn’t be the President.”

Also on Tuesday, Supreme Court judge Justice Tim Ginnane found that the Labor Party’s national executive acted lawfully when it took over the Victorian branch in June last year amid branch-stacking allegations surrounding the faction led by Mr Somyurek.

Major Labor Party unions and figures aligned with former leader Bill Shorten are considering an appeal.

The IBAC hearings will resume on November 1.

With Paul Sakkal

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