Matt Johnston: Premier digs in as rorts for votes inquiry threatens to complicate poll
AFTER Victoria Police announced its fraud squad would open a criminal probe into Labor’s alleged misuse of parliamentary budget entitlements, Premier Daniel Andrews had two choices. Both were bad, writes Matt Johnston.
Opinion
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AFTER Victoria Police dropped the bombshell announcement that its fraud squad would open a criminal investigation into Labor’s alleged misuse of parliamentary budget entitlements, Premier Daniel Andrews had two choices.
Both were bad.
The first was to stand down ministers who would be embroiled in the probe. That’s the six members of Cabinet identified in Ombudsman Deborah Glass’s report who provided taxpayer-funded staff to the ALP’s field organiser campaign.
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But as one MP noted, how could the Premier survive that?
The second option was to tough it out — bunker down once again and insist there was nothing to see here.
Unsurprisingly, that’s the option Andrews chose.
Labor MPs are divided on whether this is a sustainable approach.
Some acknowledge it’s a bizarre proposition to have senior ministers — some of who will inevitably have to face the media — under police microscopes for months on end.
Others say that because all ministers proclaim their innocence, they should therefore not stand aside.
By bunkering down, Labor is hoping people will get bored with this and instead focus on bread-and-butter state issues.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy emerged yesterday to remind Labor how hard that would be, indicating he wouldn’t be dropping his pursuit of ministers easily.
Labor spent years deflecting and delaying probes into its campaign spending, drawing out an Ombudsman’s inquiry until March this year.
Members of the government took solace in the fact police didn’t launch a formal investigation into the matter in 2016, but that was before the Ombudsman interviewed key participants.
Those MPs no longer have that comfort.
It is unlikely — almost implausible — that potential fraud and deception offences from the 2014 election campaign can be considered in just a few months.
Graham Ashton doesn’t strike me as a James Comey-type prone to making major announcements close to an election, either.
So a police investigation to establish if Labor’s last election campaign involved criminality will be live when voters cast ballot papers at the next state poll on November 24.
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