Adem Somyurek has referred allegations made against him in an anti-corruption probe to a powerful parliamentary committee

A former Labor powerbroker has referred himself to a parliamentary committee in an “extraordinary” move that’s set to create a political headache for the Andrews government.

Former Labor powerbroker and minister Adem Somyurek has referred himself to a powerful parliamentary committee over explosive allegations he misused public money.

Mr Somyurek, who quit Cabinet and the ALP after he was secretly filmed discussing party membership payments and calling a Cabinet colleague a “stupid moll”, wants MPs to probe claims of parliamentary misconduct aired during an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigation into branch stacking.

Allegations include that his former taxpayers-funded staff were improperly directed to do factional work and ran databases on party members and their cultural identities.

In a letter to Legislative Council president Nazih Elasmar, obtained by the Herald Sun, he says the powerful upper house Privileges Committee should step in now because a final IBAC report on it probe, called Operation Watts, may not emerge until after the November election.

Adem Somyurek has referred himself to a powerful parliamentary committee. Picture: Ian Currie

Operation Watts is considering — among other things — whether Mr Somyurek and other MPs engaged in “corrupt conduct” by directing staff to engage in party political work while being paid by taxpayers.

Mr Somyurek, who has remained in parliament as a member of the crossbench, denies he breached ministerial or MP codes of conduct when staff performed factional work.

He writes that he was entitled to direct staff to work in the manner they did – including overseeing databases of party members “according to factional alignment and cultural identity” – because state laws don’t prohibit such work.

“I take this extraordinary step because I believe it is unlikely that IBAC will be in a position to table its report to Parliament before this Parliament is prorogued in October,” he said.

“It is in the public interest for the matters to be examined in full public view by the privileges committee.”

Somyurek says ‘it is in the public interest for the matters to be examined in full public view’.

Legal delays have hampered a series of corruption investigations – two of which include private interviews with Premier Daniel Andrews – in Victoria and recently led to IBAC commissioner, Robert Redlich, calling for legislative reform to fix the issue.

Mr Andrews has rejected Mr Redlich’s complaint and said no reforms were planned.

The Herald Sun contacted Mr Somyurek about his letter, but he declined to comment.

If the Somyurek matter is referred to the Privileges Committee by Mr Elasmar it could hold public or private hearings to investigate the former minister’s conduct and whether he broke parliamentary rules.

It would also cause a massive political headache for the premier and the ALP due to the potential for public political bloodletting in an election year, with Mr Somyurek previously accusing Mr Andrews of “branch stacking” and overseeing a 2014 rort where MP staff budgets were used for election campaigning.

The Somyurek saga is set to cause a massive political headache for Daniel Andrews and the ALP. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

In the letter to the upper house president, Mr Somyurek says a close reading of IBAC evidence submitted through Operation Watts suggests it could accuse him of wrongdoing.

This could include by accusing him of employing staff based on factional considerations rather than merit, pressuring colleagues to employ activists aligned to his faction, directing or allowing staff to do factional work during office hours, and breaching “money for value” considerations when hiring casuals.

The letter he has sent to Mr Elasmar lays out why he would refute these allegations, including by comparing his behaviour to that of MPs involved in the Labor Party’s infamous red shirts rort.

That 2014 scheme saw taxpayer-funded staff from MP electorate offices work to elect marginal candidates, in a scheme Ombudsman Deborah Glass described as an “artifice” and “wrong”.

“In contrast, all my staff turned up to my office to work,” he said.

“A factional equivalent to the Red Shirt scheme would be as follows. A faction leader calls 25 MPs and coerces them to sign false documents that the Electorate Officers have worked in their office when they sit in a centrally located faction office.

“The Electorate Officers spend their day on taxpayer funds collectively calling and door knocking electors on the electoral roll to recruit them to the party to support their faction.

“Further, the Electorate Officers are managed and directed by the faction leader’s office and not the MP that employs them.”

Mr Somyurek says in the letter that law changes made after the red shirts rort was uncovered did not prohibit MPs from directing staff to perform specific duties – as long as that work was not to campaign for votes at an election.

While the parliamentary Members’ Guide was changed, that document was effectively “unenforceable” because legislation trumps regulation.

The MP, who led Labor’s Moderates faction until his downfall in 2020, takes a pot shot at IBAC in his letter for having “obstinately refused to investigate other factions”.

“By not investigating other factions, IBAC lacks an understanding of custom and practice in a legislative framework that is deliberately vague, hence relying on the practice adopted by MPs over the years to determine what is considered acceptable practice,” he said.

“The privileges committee is well placed to adjudicate on this matter because incumbent MPs understand the functioning of electorate offices and ministerial offices; therefore, they are in the best position to determine whether the vague legislation has been exploited, such as in the red shirts scheme.”