Andrews government plans to censure Opposition Leader Matthew Guy on Ventnor
THE ANDREWS Government will demand Opposition Matthew Guy explain his actions relating to the Ventnor planning scandal in State Parliament tomorrow, when it uses its majority to censure him.
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THE ANDREWS Government will demand Opposition Matthew Guy explain his actions relating to the Ventnor planning scandal in State Parliament tomorrow, when it uses its majority to censure him.
For a third straight day the government has focused its attention on Mr Guy and a 2013 settlement over the botched rezoning of land on Phillip Island, which cost taxpayers $3.5 million.
Secret Cabinet documents controversially released under a Labor order show Mr Guy told lawyers the settlement was needed to avoid him going to court and keep his job as minister.
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Deputy Premier James Merlino dismissed criticism from Mr Guy that Labor was obsessing over the state opposition rather than governing, saying “these are important matters”.
He said Labor would move tomorrow to censure Mr Guy, and called for the opposition leader to explain himself in Parliament, resign, and pay back the settlement money.
The motion says the House “censures the leader of the opposition for using $3.5 million of taxpayers’ money as ransom to avoid having to explain his role in the Ventnor scandal, potentially committing the crime of misconduct in public office”.
Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said if it passed, it would be a “stain” on Mr Guy’s career.
The notice of motion in the Legislative Assembly sparked outrage among Liberal MPs, who shouted “grub” and “this is a farce” at government members.
“The government of the day is obsessed with the opposition. How about being obsessed with the problems of our state,” Mr Guy said.
It comes after senior public servants were ordered by the premier to release confidential documents about Mr Guy’s dealings when he was planning minister.
They say they had to ignore constitutional conventions — under which the files of former governments are usually kept secret — to comply with the Premier’s order.
The documents, released this week, show Mr Guy ordered a $3.5 million taxpayer-funded settlement over his botched rezoning of farmland at Ventnor on Phillip Island.
The Opposition Leader received a letter earlier this year from Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles, who said that under constitutional conventions, Mr Guy would usually have to consent to the documents of the former government being released.
Mr Eccles said this was the approach taken when the lower house ordered the release of the Vertigan review of state finances.
Mr Guy did not consent and the document was not released.
The letter, obtained by the Herald Sun, shows Mr Eccles told Mr Guy that in the Ventnor case, he was “directed by the Premier in accordance with my employment contract to produce to him all relevant documents in my possession related to the motion”.
Mr Eccles said he was “legally required to comply with the Premier’s direction”, which overrode his other obligations and the state’s political conventions.
“A failure to do so would have jeopardised our compliance with our obligations under the Code of Conduct,” Mr Eccles wrote.
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One of Mr Guy’s staff members received a similar letter from Victorian Govenrment Solicitor Marlo Baragwanath, who also said: “I was legally required to provide documents in response to the Premier’s direction.”
It comes as Mr Guy threatened to release Cabinet documents from the Andrews Government on the East West Link and CFA dispute if he wins November’s state election.
The confidential Ventnor settlement was revealed in thousands of documents released from the Opposition Leader’s time as planning minister.
“This has now set a precedent … throw it open,” Mr Guy said this morning.
“Daniel Andrews is desperate. He’s a grubby politician and (James) Merlino is worse.”
Mr Guy said yesterday it would have been a “lawyers’ picnic” if the case went to court, but Deputy Premier James Merlino said he should resign as opposition leader.
“It would have been a lawyers’ picnic otherwise. It would have cost a hell of a lot more to go to court,” he said.
In 2011, Mr Guy rezoned farmland at Ventnor on Phillip Island for housing, ignoring advice from his department and the local council.
He then reversed the decision after a backlash from the local community,
Liberal politicians including federal MP Greg Hunt, and even American singer Miley Cyrus, who said Phillip Island was a “magical place” and it “would be a shame to see it change”.
The taxpayer-funded settlement included $500,000 for the owners of the land and $2 million for a woman the owners were trying to sell it to at the time.
The Andrews Government says another $1 million was spent on legal costs.
Documents show it included a “denial of liability” by Mr Guy and meant he — along with Mr Hunt and ex-premier Ted Baillieu — did not have to face an embarrassing courtroom grilling about the saga.
Mr Guy accused Labor of “throwing mud” by taking the extraordinary step of releasing Cabinet documents from the former Coalition government.
But Mr Merlino said it was necessary to shed light on “a dodgy deal”.
The saga was probed in 2014 by the Victorian Ombudsman, who said the former Coalition Government withheld some documents from his investigation.
But Mr Merlino said the documents showed Mr Guy used “ransom money” to “save his job”.
He said the documents showed Mr Guy had legal advice that he would likely win the case, and that if he lost, no damages would be paid.
Mr Merlino also said the documents revealed the government insurer had limited the government’s exposure to $250,000 if the case was lost, and that the former Coalition cabinet had set Mr Guy a $1.1 million limit to settle.
Instead, taxpayers funded a $2.5 million settlement plus $1 million in legal costs.
“This is about wilful misconduct in public office. This is a crime,” Mr Merlino said.
He said the government was considering whether to refer the matter to Victoria Police and the independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, but that both bodies were open to investigating.
One Labor figure uncomfortable with the precedent said the legal debacle over the Seal Rocks centre on Phillip Island ended up costing taxpayers $50-60 million once it went to court and that there would be some worried MPs if the ALP lost the election.
Among the thousands of pages of documents and legal advice released by the parliament at the Andrews Government’s orders was handwritten notes of conversations about the Ventnor case.
They show that Mr Guy said in July, 2013, that going to court would be a political disaster.
“This may be winnable at law, but this is a political fight and it is unwinnable,” he said.
The Opposition slammed the government’s actions in tabling the documents and accused it of trying to distract from the active police investigation into Labor’s “rorts-for-votes” scheme.
Mr Merlino said Mr Guy had been “desperate to keep (the documents) secret”.
“Victorians have a right to know about what went on with the Ventnor scandal,” he said.
“Why did Matthew Guy do this dodgy deal?”
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He criticised Mr Guy for not providing some documents on Ventnor to an Ombudsman’s investigation, but denied it was a double standard for lower house Labor MPs to have refused to co-operate with the Ombudsman’s red shirts rort probe.
Asked why the Ventnor documents were being released, Mr Merlino said yesterday that the government was “responding to a direction of the Parliament”, even though that direction was only made by the government using its numbers.
Mr Merlino sidestepped questions about why the government had waited until an election year to move to release the documents, saying that it was “a process of actions”.
Asked if Labor had set a precedent for future governments to release the classified documents of its political opponents, Mr Merlino said: “This government and any future government will assess any direction of Parliament on its merits.”
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