Adem Somyurek claims there’s no way ‘Stalinist’ Dan didn’t know about rort

Former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek has warned the Premier wields too much power to be able to claim ignorance over the Red Shirts rort.

Former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek has warned the Premier wields too much power in Victoria, claiming the state has major problems in the way the public service is being run.

He also called Daniel Andrews a “Stalinist” and said he and his inner circle cannot claim ignorance about the infamous red shirts rort.

Speaking to Peta Credlin on Sky News, Mr Somyurek said Mr Andrews now wielded so much power in the party and the government that no one could speak up about their concerns.

“It is very worrying because it’s not just politically, it’s obviously with the public service too,” he said.

“Modern government is very, very complex, you need specialist skills and he just goes with his gut.

“That’s what happened with hotel quarantine, you don’t need ‘yes’ people beside you. You need people that are experienced, that are experts.”

It comes after the former Labor MP was successful in passing a motion in the upper house calling for the red shirts rort to be reinvestigated along with political appointments in the public service.

The powerbroker and his Moderates faction are being investigated by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog over allegations of industrial-scale branch stacking and the serious misuse of taxpayer-funded staff for factional purposes.

But he is now pushing for all Labor factions to be investigated in this space and for the Ombudsman to reconsider whether the red shirts rort needed to be referred to the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission.

Mr Somyurek said Victoria had a “real problem on our hands” in the way the government was being run.

Adem Somyurek has warned Daniel Andrews wields too much power. Picture: Getty Images

“The manifestation of the Premier or the government putting mates or Labor Party activists loyal to the Socialist Left into the departments and agencies is when something different happens, you tend to think well I’m not sure I trust that particular institution anymore,” he said.

“The bureaucracy is meant to be merit-based and totally objective.

“But he’s completely killed that corporate memory, he’s put loyalists in there.

“That is the spoil system, where the government comes in and completely guts the people that are meant to be giving him expert, frank and fearless objective advice.

“That leads to corruption. That leads to loss of confidence.”

Mr Somyurek said fellow Cabinet ministers had been unhappy when the premier introduced a smaller crisis council to deal with the pandemic, circumventing traditional Cabinet processes.

He said this led to errors in decision making, claiming private security for hotel quarantine would not have happened under these processes.

“A minister would not have walked that through,” Mr Somyurek said.

“When a proposal comes to you, it goes to all the other ministers (and) everyone has an input before it even gets to Cabinet.

“But when you don’t have collective decision making … Mistakes are made and that’s something he doesn’t understand.”

Mr Somyurek said it was implausible Mr Andrews was not aware of the red shirts rort given his close ally John Lenders was the architect of the scheme.

“You can’t have your right hand man, especially someone like Daniel who is a Stalinist, to have anyone going rogue on him from the leadership,” he said.

“There is absolutely no way.

“His chief of staff, his deputy chief of staff, they all knew about it.

“So everyone knows about it but him, how does that work?

“That’s why we need IBAC to get people under oath.”

Originally published as Adem Somyurek claims there’s no way ‘Stalinist’ Dan didn’t know about rort