IBAC to probe cash for stacks
HEADING towards an election in November next year, the Andrews Government is beset with investigations into alleged rorts.
Opinion
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HEADING towards an election in November next year, the Andrews Government is beset with investigations into alleged rorts.
PARLIAMENT TO CALL IN IBAC OVER RORTS PROBE
MATT JOHNSTON: IBAC PROBE COULD CHANGE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
The latest, in which the offices of several Labor MPs are accused of defrauding printing expenses to help branch-stack federal seats, is the most serious.
As revealed in today’s Herald Sun, a preliminary inquiry by parliament initiated by Upper House president Bruce Atkinson has identified a prima facie case to answer.
These allegations are not simply a breach of spending protocols, a bending of rules or a dodgy interpretation of what is allowable.
If proven, the allegations amount to outright theft of public money and serious corruption.
As such, they will now be formally referred to the independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission for full investigation.
Under IBAC’s sweeping powers, witnesses can be compelled to give evidence and be charged with a range of offences for failing to co-operate or being untruthful.
In addition, it is likely Victoria Police will also become involved at another level of the investigation.
Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass, who is already probing separate allegations of Labor’s red-shirt brigade misuse of electoral funds in the lead-up to the 2014 election, will no doubt take a close interest in the matter as an independent officer of the Victorian parliament.
As reported in Thursday’s newspaper, the amount of money allegedly rorted at one Labor MP’s office is claimed to be more than $200,000.
The scale of any systemic rorting — in which parliament was asked to reimburse allegedly phony electoral office printing costs from at least two printing firms, with money siphoned off to fund branch stacking at a number of federal seats — may be larger than originally thought.
Federal divisions where dodgy memberships were allegedly paid include Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s Maribyrnong electorate as well as Gorton, Scullin and Calwell.
It has also emerged the offices of Mr Shorten and factional powerbroker Kim Carr have used the firm F & M Printing, which is at the centre of the investigation.
It is not suggested Mr Shorten, Mr Carr or other MPs were aware of the alleged scam.
State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has posed a number of questions in the Victorian parliament about F & M Printing, which carried out work for the office of Labor MP Khalil Eideh.
Mr Eideh denies any knowledge of impropriety and has backed his staff.
But, with the likely referral to IBAC and police, the stakes are about to get higher for Mr Andrews’ government and potentially impact on Mr Shorten and Labor’s bid for office in late 2018 or early 2019.
POLLIES AT ODDS ON GAS
THE Andrews Government’s moratorium on drawing new gas reserves in Victoria is short-changing the state on energy security and affordability.
This week, even federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called out Premier Daniel Andrews over the needless gas ban.
After taxing the coal-fired Hazelwood power station into oblivion, Victoria is now looking at an almost even-money chance of blackouts or brownouts if the summer season turns nasty.
The federal government is being pressed on potential export restrictions and a national reserve to protect the domestic market in what has been labelled a “national gas crisis”.
Remarkably, for a country that is rich in natural gas, domestic supply is tight and prices are high because of the windfall profits and long-term contracts locked in for exporters.
Gas, Australia’s third-largest energy resource after coal and uranium, is being ignored in Victoria.
Laws introduced by the Andrews Government in March, supported by the state Opposition, banned fracking as well as halting new exploration for conventional gas deposits until 2020.
Both major parties and their federal colleagues are at odds on the issue of conventional gas.
But greater gas harvesting, as a transition fuel from brown coal, together with combined-cycle power plants, has the capacity to provide Victoria with cheap, cleaner, reliable energy.
Our gas reserves in Bass Strait are gradually being depleted and becoming more expensive to access.
Onshore gas is estimated to be up to 75 per cent cheaper to draw and process than offshore reserves.
The majority of Victoria’s natural gas is sourced from the Gippsland Basin and off the Bass Coast.
Another significant deposit is the Otway Basin.
But at projected consumption rates, Victoria’s current natural gas reserves are forecast to meet demand for only 15-30 years.
The health of the state’s economy and industry demands cost-efficient energy.
And, with up to 37 per cent of gas usage residential, the hip pocket of voters is also at stake.
Daniel Andrews should listen to his federal counterpart and drop the freeze on conventional gas development.
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