Key Victorian Labor MPs were filmed during a booze-filled night at a Bali nightclub
Premier Daniel Andrews has leapt to the defence of Labor MPs who were filmed partying it up on booze-filled night in Bali while bushfires raged in East Gippsland. WATCH THE VIDEO
VIC News
Don't miss out on the headlines from VIC News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A group of Labor MPs including a senior minister has been captured on film during a booze-fuelled Bali party.
The raucous caucus was gathered at trendy Seminyak night spot Motel Mexicola, with one MP filmed having alcohol poured into his mouth while others gyrated with revellers.
The party in late-December featured Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who was up the next day to tweet about emergency evacuations ordered for East Gippsland due to towns being threatened by bushfires, as well as about the dangers of heat stress. One onlooker described the scene at the tourist hotspot as “like a year 12 schoolies trip”.
“It was pretty appalling behaviour when MPs are having liquor poured down their throats,” the witness said.
The crossfire came as a Mallacoota woman, who lost her house in the bushfires, expressed her anger at politicians going overseas during the crisis, saying they “should have been wherever the fires were”
But a Labor source said it was just a group of friends and their partners letting their hair down after a long year.
A government spokeswoman said no taxpayer money was spent during the private holiday.
The MPs in the videos, provided to the Herald Sun, included Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer Steve Dimopoulos, Bentleigh MP Nick Staikos, Bayswater MP Jackson Taylor, and Ms Mikakos.
At various times the four colleagues linked arms to dance and also high-fived bemused patrons, while Mr Dimopoulos lifts up Mr Taylor as the pair leaves the bar.
Also in attendance were Yuroke MP Ros Spence and her husband, former ALP assistant state secretary Kosmos Samaras, who appeared to give the makeshift dancefloor a wider berth.
Premier Daniel Andrews has thrown his full support behind Health Minister Jenny Mikakos and the group of Labor MPs following the release of footage.
“She’s an outstanding health minister doing an outstanding job,” he said.
“I’m the Premier and I think it’s appropriate that ministers have some leave.”
Mr Andrews said he had not attacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison over a trip to Hawaii during bushfire season late last year.
“I’ve not made one critical comment about the PM (when) a lot of other people piled on him at the time,” he said.
“I didn’t think that was really a story either.
“I’m very clear on just how important a part of our government Jenny is and the outstanding work that she’s doing.”
Ms Mikakos said she had cut her leave short as the bushfire conditions worsened and was back in Melbourne when a state of disaster was declared.
“People with the names Dimopoulos, Mikakos and Staikos. It would be no surprise to anybody that when Zorba is playing we like to get up and dance,” she said.
“Effectively what the Liberal Party is saying today is that Scott Morrison should not have been in Hawaii and that ministers should never take leave.
“If these are the new rules that want to abide by. I’m sure this was not a standard that they held themselves to in the past.”
Tourism, Sport and Major Event Minister Martin Pakula said nobody would want to see footage of themselves on a night out.
“Quite frankly for the Opposition to be sending David Davis of all people out to make this attack demonstrates that Michael O’Brien’s either got a sense of humour or a very short memory,” he said.
“I’ve seen David in less than pristine circumstances a lot more often than Jenny and it wasn’t in Bali.”
Mr Dimopolous said he was “not a great dancer”.
“It was a very brief holiday,” he said.
“It was a personal holiday with friends and I felt very comfortable and safe with friends.”
Opposition spokesman David Davis criticised Ms Mikakos for leaving the country as bushfires raged in Victoria towards the end of the year.
“The Health Minister had a specific role and should have been in the state, prepared to be on deck at short notice,” he said.
“Hospitals and health services play a critical role at times of disaster management and as events showed, our country hospitals were stretched.”
Mr Davis’s comments will revive memories of Ms Mikakos attacking then-community services minister Mary Wooldridge in 2014 for being “nowhere to be seen” at the height of a fire in Morwell. At the time, Ms Mikakos said Ms Wooldridge was too busy fighting a preselection battle in Kew to attend the disaster at the former Hazelwood mine.
In December, Prime Minister Scott Morrison also faced criticism for going on holiday to Hawaii while parts of the country were burning, forcing him to cut short the trip and head to affected communities.
The rowdy video showing merriment at Motel Mexicola — which bills itself as a “tropical oasis” — is an unwelcome distraction for the Andrews Government as it prepares for a parliamentary sitting week.
During the videos, MPs are seen jumping up and down to the Taio Cruz hit Dynamite and Zorba’s Dance.
At one point a bartender tips back Mr Dimopoulos’s chin to pour liquor into his mouth, while other MPs dance beside him.
Other than Ms Mikakos, who has been an MP for more than two decades, the partying MPs are relative newcomers to state parliament.
A spokeswoman for the Andrews Government said no taxpayer money was involved.
“This was a privately-funded trip by MPs,” she said.
MORE NEWS
SOUTHEAST MELBOURNE’S WORST DRUG DEALERS EXPOSED
CONTROVERSIAL CASEY COUNCIL ‘FURIOUS’ OVER SACKING NEWS
HOLDEN: THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AUSTRALIAN ICON
WHO ARE THE BALI PARTY MPS?
JENNY MIKAKOS, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AMBULANCE SERVICES
Northern Metropolitan MP, first elected 1999
A senior state minister and ally of Premier Daniel Andrews, she has previously held roles as child protection and early childhood minister.
The former lawyer was a parliamentary secretary during the Bracks and Brumby governments, and is described as a hard worker by colleagues and often spars with the opposition in the Legislative Council.
STEVE DIMOPOULOS, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE TREASURER
Member for Oakleigh, first elected 2014
Part of the group of MPs who was elected when Mr Andrews rose to power, he is a former mayor of Monash Council. The affable MP had a bruising first term, after residents angry at the government’s sky rail plan launched a bitter campaign against him.
NICK STAIKOS, DEPUTY GOVERNMENT WHIP IN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
Member for Bentleigh, first elected 2014
Another class of 2014 MP who is a prolific social media user. An energetic MP who is the party’s caucus secretary. He was previously a member of Glen Eira Council, and was the youngest ever elected councillor at the age of 19.
JACKSON TAYLOR, MEMBER FOR BAYSWATER
First elected 2018
Got a late call-up as a Labor candidate after the previous candidate withdrew on election eve. Erected a billboard — at his expense — with an image of him and his dog Baxter wearing Santa hats, wishing his community a merry Christmas, tagging a photo of it referring to himself as “action Jackson”.