Labor whistleblowers say taxpayer money siphoned for party memberships

LATEST: PREMIER Daniel Andrews says he “has no knowledge” of the Keilor East printing firm at the centre of taxpayer rort claims.

Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been ­siphoned from MPs’ printing budgets to pay for party membership, Labor whistleblowers say.

PREMIER Daniel Andrews says he “has no knowledge” of the Keilor East printing firm at the centre of taxpayer rort claims.

Parliament will probe Labor whistleblowers claims that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been ­siphoned from MPs’ printing budgets to pay for party memberships.

Three ALP members have come forward to claim that hundreds of party memberships were bankrolled under the scheme, which dates back several years.

The operation allegedly ran out of several state electorate offices and involved at least one printing business.

In one MP’s office, it is ­alleged up to $30,000 a year was being siphoned.

LATEST: SECOND PRINTER IN LABOR STACKS RORT PROBE

When asked in Parliament if he had used the printing firm F&M printing in Keilor East which has carried out work for the office of Khalil Eideh, Premier Daniel Andrews said he “has no knowledge” of the business.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy raised the alleged scam with the government in Parliament.

“Is it a fact that printing firm F&M Printing, a backyard business located in Keilor East, has been used by your Labor MPs to fraudulently produce invoices for printing they haven’t done in order to siphon off taxpayer money to pay for Labor Party memberships?”

Mr Andrews responded by saying: “I am asked to confirm a number of matters as fact and I am in no position to do that”.

Mr Guy also asked whether Mr Eideh, the upper house deputy president, had been using F&M Printing to “defrauded Victorian taxpayers”.

Mr Andrews said he “has no knowledge” of Keilor East-based F&M printing.

Legislative Council president Bruce Atkinson confirmed the probe this morning following the Herald Sun revelations.

Upper house president Bruce Atkinson said the allegations were “deeply disturbing”.

“There are no grey areas in our regulation,” he said.

“If the allegations are true they involve criminal actions.

“Parliament had commenced an investigation and if we can establish the veracity of the practices outlined in the Herald Sun article the matter will be referred to external agencies.

“I have already begun a review of printing invoices and we will pursue other lines on inquiry.”

In an elaborate rort, staff in MPs’ offices created false invoices to claim payments from state parliament for printing work that was never done, whistleblowers allege.

Printing firms — in on the scam — took a small cut and sent the rest of the cash back to MPs’ offices.

This morning, Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber called for an investigation into the alleged scheme.

“The president and the speaker need to call in the police, today, right now,” he said.

While Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said Labor needed to act and stop the rort.

“The Andrews Government is addicted to stealing public money,” he said.

Speaker Colin Brooks said the allegations were serious and said it was appropriate for the Victoria Police to prove the issue.

“We are encouraging people to come forward either to the parliamentary or the relevant authority,” he said.

Upper house leader of the government Gavin Jennings said he was aware of the allegations and welcomed the parliament investigation.

“I think the veracity of the allegations should be tested on evidence,” he said.

He also told the chamber he did not personally know of any MP using the printing company.

But Industrial Relations Minister Natalie Hutchins played down the issue.

“They are allegations, if people have evidence they should be bringing it forward,” she said.

“At the end of the day if these allegations have any substance then people should bring forward the evidence.

xx xx xx x x x x

”

Last year, parliament received an invoice for 20,000 brochures for that office, supposedly to be handed out at a small community festival. That invoice was for $4455.

One senior Labor figure observed that would be an “absurdly high” number of brochures for such an event.

Those prints are among more than 120,000 it is ­alleged were funded by taxpayers since 2014, but never produced, from that office.

Under the scam, just a handful of brochures would be printed off and attached to the bogus invoices as evidence of work done.

The printers would keep between 3 and 10 per cent of the budget and hand the rest of the money to a notorious Victorian branch stacker.

Stackers fund party memberships for people who are not active and do not pay themselves, to boost factional powerbrokers’ support bases and influence preselections.

One source told the Herald Sun that it was “the oldest scam in the book”.

“Parliament gets presented with bills, supposedly for printing,” the source said. “There are lots of different ways to pay for ALP memberships.”

It is alleged the printing cash scam was used to pay for ALP memberships in four federal seats before the deal was terminated in mid-2016.

Branch stacking has been a significant issue for the Victorian ALP in recent years, with hundreds of memberships — and the way they are paid for — being scrutinised.

ALP assistant secretary Kosmos Samaras said the party had no knowledge of the allegations but said “the party has internal processes that can deal with any allegation that relates to branch stacking”.

“It is difficult for us to investigate financial transactions, we do not have the capacity to do so. With MPs and how they spend their money ... that’s a matter for parliament,” he said.

When contacted on Tuesday, the alleged ringleader of the scam, who works in an MP’s electorate office, said “that is a ridiculous allegation”. The MP also denied any knowledge of their electorate office printing budget being misused.

Owners of one printing company embroiled in the scandal told the Herald Sun they were ALP members, but denied wrongdoing.

“No money has gone back, I have no idea what goes on down there. We do the work, we pay our bills, they don’t pay us, we deliver the goods. You are looking to me for information,” the owner said.

“You go back to the ALP ­office and you ask them what’s going on.”

[e-mail]