Marlene Kairouz takes aim at Labor’s ‘bully boys’

Dan Andrews has hit back at claims made by former Labor MP Marlene Kairouz that the party is run by “bully boys” enabled by the premier.

Premier Daniel Andrews’ has hit back at claims by one of his fellow MPs that Labor was being run by bullies.

In an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun, Marlene Kairouz took aim at the premier and federal leader Anthony Albanese over attempts to oust her from her seat, saying this conflicted with commitments to gender equality and mental health.

Ms Kairouz is among those MPs being examined by IBAC over alleged misuse of taxpayer funded staffers and branch stacking.

When asked about Ms Kairouz, the premier defended his record.

“If you look at the record of our government in terms of investing in greater diversity, greater gender equity, greater safety for women and their children. I don’t think that really can be disputed by anyone,” Mr Andrews said.

“It didn’t happen by accident, it happened because all the way back to who is preselected, who works hard, who wins, structural changes have been made over many many decades.

“(It’s been) a real priority of our government to make sure the Cabinet looks like the community it serves.

“I just don’t think that’s valid criticism.”

(L-R) Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews denies the claims by Kairouz.

Mr Andrews would not be drawn on whether upper house MP Cesar Melhem, who publicly urged him to intervene and save sitting MPs, had spoken to him directly.

“These are internal matters and they’ll be dealt with by the national executive of the party,” he said.

“You can form a view about what’s appropriate, or what is or isn’t my role.

“I’m making it very clear to you what I will or won’t be doing.

“It’s a matter for the national executive and I am not a member of the national executive.”

Kairouz’s extraordinary broadside at her own party included claims “bully boys” are running the ALP and lobbyists are pulling the strings behind the scenes.

She vowed to fight party powerbrokers who are seeking to dump her as the candidate for Kororoit in the next state election.

The former gaming minister, who has held the seat since 2008, said Labor’s branch-stacking scandal and internal battles had taken a massive toll on her mental health.

The embattled MP, interviewed this year as part of an anti-corruption probe into branch-stacking but who maintains her innocence, said she also faced losing her home after running up bills for failed legal challenges to try to stave off ALP actions against her.

Ms Kairouz said both Daniel Andrews and federal Labor leader ­Anthony Albanese could step in to stop her factional enemies, who were now plotting her political ­execution.

Labor MP Marlene Kairouz with her sister, Paula Kairouz, who died in 2021. Picture: Supplied

“The Premier and Albo, who talk about women in politics, need to stop enabling the factional bully boys who are seeking revenge on a female MP,” she said.

“The Premier must now step in and support me – otherwise all the talk about mental health and supporting women is not genuine.”

Ms Kairouz insisted she was determined to keep representing her community and declined to answer whether she could walk away from her seat if she was replaced as the ALP’s Kororoit candidate, which would trigger a damaging and costly by-election.

She was unable to discuss any matters still before the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, she said, including allegations she paid for memberships against party rules.

But Ms Kairouz said she had never branch-stacked and alleged she was now being targeted by people who had done so themselves.

“Among the (political) executioners are people who have paid for (party) memberships,” she told the Herald Sun.

Last year, explosive branch-stacking allegations took down Ms Kairouz’s political ally, Adem Somyurek, and sparked a national takeover of the Victorian ALP, meaning the preselection of candidates was taken out of the hands of members and state representatives.

Ms Kairouz was called to front a Labor disputes tribunal and unsuccessfully tried to fight the internal process in court, arguing she was denied “natural justice and fairness”.

“For my loss I am about to lose my house,” she said.

Ms Kairouz said her nightmare year had been compounded by the sudden death of her sister, Paula, in July, which was made more distressing by false claims it was linked to Covid-19 vaccines.

“She was my rock,” Ms Kairouz said.

“There was no link, it was a heart condition she didn’t know she had.”

The former minister is one of at least seven sitting MPs being targeted for replacement by the party’s dominant ­factional grouping that includes the Premier’s Socialist Left faction, retail union the SDA and the Transport Workers’ Union and forces aligned with former senator Stephen Conroy.

The Premier with Ms Kairouz. Picture: AAP

On Wednesday, it was ­revealed the government had ordered a review into gambling and multicultural grants awarded to groups while Ms Kairouz and another member of her faction, Robin Scott, were ministers.

Labor figures and MPs aligned with the dominant grouping say most of the MPs facing challenges had been ­involved in matters probed by anti-corruption officials and the action was justified.

But Ms Kairouz said vendettas were personal and the boss of the SDA, Michael Donovan, had “never forgiven” her and others for leaving his faction during the first term of Mr Andrews’ premiership.

“He wishes to destroy MPs and hand-pick agents of his ­influence, on the basis of ­revenge,” she said.

Ms Kairouz also said Mr Conroy was still angry about her refusal to meet with him when he was a gambling lobbyist and her calls for him to resign from the ALP national executive in 2017 due to conflict of interest.

The Herald Sun contacted Mr Donovan and Mr Conroy for comment.

Ms Kairouz said more broadly, the problem of lobbyists competing for government contracts while helping to decide who remained in parliament was an untenable situation that would “end in tears”.

She also questioned the “double standards” of Labor’s leadership, noting federal MP Anthony Byrne had ­admitted in the IBAC hearings to branch-stacking and paying for memberships, but had been preselected as the party’s candidate for Holt in next year’s federal election.

The former minister said she still wanted to serve her community but had struggled with the internal campaign waged against her.

“They put me through hell, the public humiliation and bullying,” she said. “My mental health has suffered – I was pretending for a long time, but I need to say to people, don’t be afraid to seek help.”