Labor Minister Luke Donnellan quits ministry
A Labor minister has quit after a bombshell start to a corruption probe that has heard allegations of branch stacking in the Labor Party.
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Luke Donnellan has quit the Victorian cabinet following allegations during anti-corruption hearings.
Mr Donnellan has stood down from his portfolio of aged care and disability but will remain on the backbench.
It comes hours after federal Holt MP Anthony Byrne told the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) that Mr Donnellan had paid for party memberships when being quizzed about branch stacking.
He is the fourth MP forced out of cabinet as part of the secret tapes scandal centred around powerbroker Adem Somyurek.
Mr Donnellan was elected in 2002 as the MP for Narre Warren North and has been the Minister Child Protection and the Minister Disability, Ageing and Carers since December, 2018.
In a statement Mr Donnellan revealed he had told Premier Daniel Andrews he would be stepping down as minister.
“I accept that I have previously breached party rules while a minister,” he said.
“But let me be very clear: I never misused public funds or resources in any way.
“And this has absolutely nothing to do with my staff.”
But Mr Donnellan said he didn’t believe it was possible to maintain his ministerial responsibilities after revelations about paying for memberships had come to light.
“The work to support vulnerable Victorians is too important, especially during the pandemic,” he said.
Mr Andrews said Mr Donnellan advised him of his immediate resignation on Monday afternoon.
“I thank Luke for his contribution to the government in his various ministerial portfolios, particularly his hard work in child protection, disability and ageing,” he said.
“He has been a passionate advocate for vulnerable kids, people with disability and older Victorians and he leaves a legacy of reform of which he can be proud.
“Luke’s work has seen a transformation of the system for children and families in Victoria, investing in hundreds of dedicated child protection workers and navigators to do their important work supporting families and kids – making sure they have the stable foundation to begin their lives.”
Mr Andrews said he would not be commenting further, given the inquiry on foot.
Deputy Premier James Merlino and senior government Minister Richard Wynne have been given new cabinet portfolios following the resignation of Donnellan.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced the short-term changes in a statement late on Monday night.
Mr Merlino will add Disability, Ageing and Carers to his responsibilities while Minister Wynne takes on the Child Protection portfolio.
“As senior ministers in the relevant departments, I have asked the Deputy Premier and Minister Wynne to assume these additional duties in the short term,” Mr Andrews said.
“Broader changes to the Ministry will be made at a later date.”
The IBAC inquiry is probing allegations of serious corrupt conduct involving Victorian public officers, including MPs.
The hearings will investigate whether public officers, including MPs, are engaging in corrupt conduct while in public office by telling ministerial and electorate office staff to do party-political work while they’re being paid from public funds to do ministerial or electorate work.
TWO IN TAXPAYER-FUNDED ELECTORATE JOBS NEVER SHOWED UP FOR WORK
The first day of the inquiry heard from federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne. He told IBAC factional heavyweight Adem Somyurek asked his office to employ two men, who were hired for months as electorate officers. Yet, Mr Byrne said neither ever turned up for work.
Mr Byrne said Mr Somyurek asked him to employ Burhan Yigit, a longstanding ALP member from the western suburbs who controlled a large number of Labor members and was “extremely close” to Mr Somyurek.
The second man was Labor member Hakki Suleyman.
Mr Byrne believed Mr Somyurek wanted his office to hire the men so they could work on recruiting new Labor members.
Mr Byrne said he was unhappy with the request and expected the men to turn up to work.
“I often complained about the fact I had no idea what they were doing,” he said.
“I just said (to Adem) I have a real problem with what’s going on here.”
He felt no choice to deny the request, he added.
“To have denied that request would not have been healthy for my long term future because I had assumed someone like Adem .. would initiate some form of retribution.
“It could be using my staff, it could be arranging for my political execution.”
The inquiry was also told an aspiring Labor politician paid $5000 to factional bosses to win a federal seat.
Mr Byrne told IBAC that party candidate Steven Michelson made a “substantial” contribution to secure the Labor seat of Isaacs once it was vacated by Mark Dreyfus.
The payment was made to “garner factional support” for when Mr Dreyfus moved on, he said.
“Was he promised anything for that contribution?” Counsel assisting IBAC Chris Carr SC, asked Mr Byrne.
“I think he would’ve been led to understand he would’ve been favourably looked upon,” Mr Byrne said.
“I was told he was approached and asked for the money.”
“And he paid it?” Mr Carr asked.
“He did. I think Adem (Somyurek) had advised me this is what was advised of him.”
Mr Byrne said he presumed Mr Somyurek came up with the $5000 figure.
He told the inquiry he was angry about how Mr Somyurek treated people.
Mr Byrne talked of Mr Somyurek’s “lunatic rants” in a text message in November 2019.
Mr Byrne alleged Mr Somyurek was directing taxpayer-funded electorate officers and ministerial staff to perform Labor’s factional activities, “ringing people all hours of the day and night pushing people to do things they didn’t want to do”.
“He’s trying to ramp up branch stacking in the southeast apparently. Which is disastrous. Can cost seats at state and federal elections. He’s a vandal,” Mr Byrne wrote to Nick McLennan, who had worked in his electorate office.
“If you speak with him can you record him? His lunatic rants. I am really angry about how he is treating people.”
Mr Byrne said it was “very widely practised” that staff did factional work while being paid to perform taxpayer-funded electoral duties.
“If I felt I had a choice it wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
Mr Carr questioned if ALP head office turned a blind eye to the “flagrant branch stacking” over the past five years.
“I don’t know if I’d say blind eye. I would say powerless to stop it,” Mr Byrne said.
FEDERAL LABOR MP ADMITS TO BRANCH STACKING
Mr Byrne earlier admitted to involvement in branch stacking and paying for memberships.
Mr Carr asked Mr Byrne whether he himself was involved in branch stacking.
“I certainly have,” he said.
Mr Byrne said he had paid for some Labor memberships and estimated he might have spent as much as $2000 in some years.
He said he was also aware of Mr Somyurek and cabinet minister Luke Donnellan paying for memberships.
IBAC has been grilling the Holt MP on the prevalence of branch stacking among elected officials.
This included questions about a “southeastern alliance” among right-aligned Labor figures and a peace agreement with the Socialist Left faction to reduce stacking in the area.
Mr Byrne said the misuse of taxpayer funds in the Labor Party was “completely out of control”.
He was also asked by Mr Carr about a message he sent to a friend about the Victorian branch of the ALP being dissolved by the national executive and administrators appointed in the wake of misconduct allegations, including branch stacking linked to Mr Somyurek.
“My comfort is that it looks like something will finally be done to clean up Victoria, they have dissolved the branch,” the text said.
Mr Byrne said while he could not recall the message, but felt the sentiments were true “not just then but for many years”.
“I thought the party was completely out of control,” Mr Byrne told the hearing.
“I saw things and heard things that I just didn’t think I’d ever see in a modern Labor Party.
“I’d heard about them, seen them in the ‘90s and never thought that I’d see them again.
“I’m referring to branch stacking, I’m referring to coercion of staff, being made to do things they didn’t want to do.
“I was referring to a party that basically was being taken over by one person whose sole agenda was power.” When asked to name that person, he replied: “Adem Somyurek.”
BRANCH STACKING ‘ENDEMIC’
Mr Byrne described branch stacking as “endemic” in the party.
He said he observed Mr Somyurek and former Labor Minister Marlene Kairouz coerce taxpayer-funded ministerial and electorate office staff to engage in factional activities.
He said the “relentless” focus on stacking was to the detriment of “just about anything else”.
When asked by Mr Carr when it all started, Mr Byrne replied: “I don’t think the system ever stopped”.
“I think the system had been operating through the ‘90s and continued through the 2000s and 2010s.”
Mr Byrne said after his election to the Victorian seat of Holt in 1999, he reached out to the party’s Socialist Left faction to broker an agreement to minimise branch stacking.
“I believed effectively, certainly from what I experienced … that branch stacking was wrong, branch stacking was corrupt, branch stacking rips the soul out a Labor Party and a community,” he said.
Mr Byrne said for many years it was put to him he had to recruit more members to his faction and others had expressed “intense frustration” about his lack of factional activity.
In opening statements, Mr Carr referenced the red shirts affair and the misuse of electorate resources for political purposes.
He said IBAC received evidence early in 2020 to suggest there continued to be “premeditated and systematic rorting of taxpayer resources”.
The hearing is continuing.
Originally published as Labor Minister Luke Donnellan quits ministry
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