Adem Somyurek accuses Daniel Andrews of branch stacking

In a sensational allegation, dumped Labor MP Adem Somyurek has accused Premier Daniel Andrews of branch stacking.

In a stinging speech to the Victorian parliament, dumped Labor MP Adem Somyurek has accused Daniel Andrews of branch stacking. Last night Mr Somyurek doubled down on his claims on social media where he isn’t protected by parliamentary privilege.

In his parliamentary attack earlier in the day, he also accused former friend and federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne of both “betrayal” and branch stacking.

Mr Somyurek was in June sacked by the Premier from state cabinet and given a life ban from Labor after TV’s 60 Minutes aired secret recordings of him using foul language about a female minister and allegedly paying money to stack ALP branches.

However, on his first day back in parliament since June, Mr Somyurek unleashed allegations against Labor Party members, including accusing Mr Andrews of being part of a branch-stacking arms race in the 1990s.

Adem Somyurek has again denied branch stacking allegations. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mr Somyurek said he was aware of the Premier’s work with a Socialist Left-aligned local MP in the “prized seat of Holt” in Melbourne’s southeast.

“The right, that is the SDA, and the SL (Socialist Left) were in the middle of a protracted branch stacking war … … Byrne was stacking for the SDA (Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association) and Andrews was stacking for the local SL-aligned local member,” he said.

“Byrne quickly latched on to me like a leech in the hope that I would recruit members.

“I watched with fascination as Byrne recruited from the Vietnamese community, the Bosnian community, the Albanian community and the Latin American community.

“He constantly worked the phones, begging, promising seats, support for council, jobs, grants, anything. He would promise anything in order to get the numbers to rock up.”

Mr Somyurek claimed that Mr Andrews and the Socialist Left “for their part, would march in their Latinos, Alawite Turks, Kurds and all varieties of Sri Lankans”.

Late on Thursday night Mr Somyurek cryptically tweeted: “To be continued …” before writing: “I don’t say anything in parliament that I am not prepared to say outside.”

He used the social media platform to repeat his claims that “Byrne is a branch stacker … Byrne was an inferior candidate to Jill Hennessy … Andrews stacked branches in the ’90s”.

During his parliamentary attack when Mr Somyurek mentioned Mr Andrews and his factional role in the Socialist Left, the upper house’s president, Nazih Elasma, cautioned him to be ­careful and to not abuse his parliamentary privilege.

Premier Daniel Andrews has been accused of branch stacking.

Mr Somyurek was forced to end his speech early after ­repeated interjections by Liberal MP Bruce Atkinson appealing for Mr Somyurek to be reined in.

“Information that’s been provided to this house could not be repeated outside on the steps of this parliament because it is so defamatory and arguably impinges upon some of the current legal matters that are proceeding, and investigations that are proceeding,” Mr Atkinson said.

Asked about Mr Somyurek’s comments, Mr Andrews who has previously denied he is a branch stacker, said: “I don’t have much to say about that. The person making those claims, I think his record speaks for itself and so does mine.”

Mr Somyurek is currently the subject of an investigation by the state’s anti-corruption watchdog and his speech prompted warnings from it about the importance of its investigations and functions.

At the beginning of his speech, Mr Somyurek apologised for comments he made about gay people which were heard in the secret recordings aired on 60 Minutes.

“I take this opportunity to say to those young people grappling with their sexuality that what I said was wrong,” he said.

In the recordings the former party powerbroker described Young Labor members as “little passive aggressive f---ing gay kids” and gay staffers as “real slimy little f---ers”.

“We’ll have our gay kids just doing what they do: just being patronising and annoying,” he said in the recording.

On Thursday he said his language was bad but was the product of being raised in the western suburbs and dealing with constant racism, including being called a “wog”.

Mr Somyurek also claimed he had used his influence in the party to preselect six women.