Kieran Rooney: Adem Somyurek’s answers at IBAC only create more questions for Dan Andrews

Dan Andrews will now face fresh questions on what was going on under his watch and whether he has been dishonest about his knowledge of the red shirts affair.

IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich and Adem Somyurek clearly come from different planets.

The head of the corruption watchdog’s jaw was on the floor as the Labor powerbroker described how little the “red shirts” rort had fazed the party and politicians in general.

Somyurek was matter-of-fact as he described how a damaging report from Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass hadn’t discouraged the misuse of taxpayer resources, but instead may have given it the green light.

Commissioner Redlich was right to be frustrated but he shouldn’t be surprised.

The “red shirts” affair – first revealed by the Herald Sun, in which Labor misused $388,000 of taxpayers’ money to part-pay political campaign staff during the 2014 state election – was a clear act of being caught out. Somyurek even called it a “gold standard” rort.

Adem Somyurek at the IBAC hearing.

A scathing Ombudsman’s investigation should have been a watershed moment that forced parties to take the misuse of public resources seriously. Perversely, according to Somyurek, it was a green light that showed politicians what they could get away with.

Rule changes introduced in 2019 only singled out the use of taxpayer-paid staff for campaign work, leaving the factional work that has been commonplace for decades in the clear.

“When the Ombudsman had the gold standard rort and didn’t actually smack it down sufficiently, we all thought, ‘wow, it is carte blanche’,” Somyurek told the commission.

Both sides of politics supported of the 2019 rule changes remaining narrow because they both had skin in the game.

The very fact that IBAC is again having to investigate the misuse of public resources – this time in connection with branch-stacking – shows that the rot never stopped.

Last year, Premier Daniel Andrews was quick to point out his own shock and horror over the industrial scale branch-stacking.

But Somyurek maintains the pair were alive to similar activity in the early 2000s and cooked up a peace deal before someone wound up in jail.

Given this context it’s hard to believe the Labor leader was remotely surprised when the allegations came to light.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Andrews will now face fresh questions on how much he knew of what was going on under his watch and whether he has been dishonest about his knowledge of the red shirts affair.

Much-needed answers will be sparse, with Somyurek’s tarnished reputation and an IBAC probe providing him with ready-made lines to avoid going into detail.

But that is not good enough. After years leading a party repeatedly accused of rorting, he should come clean and say what he knew.

Commissioner Redlich on Monday described the lack of political will to clean up electorate offices as a “terrible indictment” on the parliament. If he found that shocking, it’s no wonder his jaw was on the floor.