Police find no evidence of criminal offence in probe against Coalition MPs
A fraud squad investigation into Labor’s “red shirts” rort is in its concluding stages, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton has said, and those behind the rort should know by month’s end if they will be charged.
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The architects of Labor’s “red shirts” rort are expected to know by the end of the month whether they will be charged.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed on Thursday that the fraud squad’s investigation — which started in July last year — was in its “concluding stages”.
“It seems to go on a long time,” he said, adding it was not a “black and white” case.
Detectives are considering whether to charge former treasurer John Lenders and his former adviser Jadon Mintern over their role in organising the “rorts-for-votes” scheme during the 2014 state election campaign.
About $388,000 of taxpayers’ money was misused by the Labor Party to part-pay political campaign staff.
It comes as Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien slammed Labor for wasting police resources after the force wrapped up a separate 10-month probe into a complaint lodged by Deputy Premier James Merlino.
Mr Merlino had asked police to investigate a group of Coalition MPs for allegedly rorting public funds and misusing electorate office resources.
The Herald Sun revealed on Thursday that police completed a “comprehensive assessment” of the matter and “no criminal offence occurred”.
“This was a complex matter and given the high level of public interest, it was important that we took all necessary steps and time to come to a determination,” Victoria Police spokeswoman Leonie Johnson said.
Mr O’Brien said the complaint was a “pathetic” attempt by Labor to “tie up the resources of police on a false claim against their political opponents”.
“The only person who should be charged is James Merlino — for wasting police’s time,” he said.
Asked whether Labor had wasted police time, Premier Daniel Andrews said: “I don’t believe so”.
“There was a belief that it was a proper matter for police to investigate,” Mr Andrews said. “They’ve done their job and I won’t offer any comment beyond that.”
He said he had “no intention” of referring the matter to the Ombudsman or the parliamentary privileges committee.
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Police are expected to make a decision on its investigation into Labor’s red shirts rort within weeks.
With police expected to conclude the “red shirts” probe soon, Mr Andrews said his government was “appropriately distant” from it.
“I don’t make judgments on those matters,” he said. “They are appropriately distant from me and the government. It’s for the Office of Public Prosecutions to do their work, Victoria Police to do their work.”