Former minister Marlene Kairouz launches court action against Victorian Labor

Former Labor minister Marlene Kairouz has launched a Supreme Court action to block a move to expel her from the party.

A former Labor minister has launched a Supreme Court action to block a move to expel her from the ALP over alleged misconduct including bringing the party into disrepute.

Marlene Kairouz who resigned last year after a clandestine recording of her speaking to an ALP branch meeting was leaked to the media, has asked the Supreme Court to put a hold on internal Labor probe that could see her booted from the party.

But in a dramatic escalation of Labor’s internal strife, the former minister is seeking to have last year’s federal intervention overturned by the court.

Ms Kairouz was charged and asked to front Labor’s internal disputes panel late on January 31, just hours after administrators Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin handed back control of the branch.

Her charges do not specifically mention branch stacking but are understood to relate to the transfer of memberships, her attendance at branch meetings and which members were recruited.

In a statement sent to her Labor colleagues, Ms Kairouz lashed the way the internal party investigation was conducted and accused the party of ignoring a fair process.

She said an official involved in the probe had also destroyed the recordings that had been claimed as evidence against her.

Marlene Kairouz. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

“In some cases materials were leaked many days and weeks before they were sent to me,” she said.

“Even before the administrators contacted me, I was aware of comments attributed to a former Right faction powerbroker, who seems to main a level of influence within the party, that I “would be joining Mr Somyurek on the cross benches in the new year”.

“His underlings were also reported to be making the same comments.”

Ms Kairouz said Labor insiders had talked about her being charged before she had made her own submissions in her defence.

“So much for procedural fairness,” she said.

Documents lodged before the Supreme Court name Steve Bracks, Jenny Macklin and Labor’s national executive as defendants in the case.

In the writ, lawyers acting on behalf of Ms Kairouz claim the national branch of the party did not have the power to intervene in Victorian Labor because it did not follow correct procedures.

They argue the intervention would only have been legal if they had correctly come to the conclusion the state branch was braching the party’s national constitution

“Accordingly, the purported appointment of the Administrators was invalid and the

Administrators had no power to act pursuant to the Administration Resolution,” it reads

“In the premises, the retrospective charging of Ms Kairouz of the alleged offences set

out in the Charges is unlawful and invalid.”

The Supreme Court action by Ms Kairouz will be the second time in three years that Labor’s so-called plenary power which gives the National Executive untrammelled power has been challenged in the courts.

In 2016 CFMEU boss John Setka attempted to have his expulsion from the ALP blocked by the Supreme Court.

Mr Setka ultimately left the party but the consensus among legal observers about the Setka case was that had he chosen to pursue the matter the union leader could have tied the matter up in appeals for years.

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