Premier Daniel Andrews tight-lipped on police moves to interview Labor MPs in rorts saga
PREMIER Daniel Andrews has refused to say whether his MPs will co-operate with police probing Labor’s red shirts rort.
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PREMIER Daniel Andrews has refused to say whether his MPs will co-operate with police who want to grill them over Labor’s red shirts rort.
The Herald Sun revealed on Wednesday that police had begun requesting interviews with MPs involved in the scheme that siphoned almost $388,000 from parliamentary budgets to part-pay campaign staff ahead of the 2014 election.
It comes after dozens of investigators arrested for interview 17 former campaign staff in August.
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With fewer than 40 days until the state election, Mr Andrews on Wednesday refused to comment when asked how many of his MPs had been contacted by police.
“As this is an ongoing matter I’m unable to provide any commentary at all,” he said.
“It would be completely inappropriate for me to provide any commentary at all.”
Mr Andrews also refused to answer questions about whether his MPs would co-operate with the police investigation, and whether voters had a right to know the position of MPs caught up in the probe.
Six government ministers — Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings, Attorney-General Martin Pakula, Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos, Corrections Minister Gayle Tierney, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Sports Minister John Eren — were among 21 Labor MPs involved in the scheme.
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The government repeatedly attempted to block an Ombudsman’s investigation into the rort, launching a series of legal challenges to her power.
It also passed an “exclusive cognisance” motion in parliament to protect its lower house MPs from her investigation.
Despite the stonewalling, Ombudsman Deborah Glass found in March that the “artifice” was “wrong” and police launched a formal investigation months later.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said Labor was “the party of crime”.
He said that Labor’s damaging rorts-for-votes saga differed from the current court drama of Nationals MP Tim McCurdy because it involved taxpayers’ money.
Mr McCurdy was earlier this month committed to stand trial on fraud charges for allegedly wrongly using a former colleague’s letterhead to sell and collect commission on two dairy farms in 2009.
“That is a private matter … Tim will deal with that,” Mr Guy said.
“You are seeing government ministers, in relation to taxpayer expenses in their roles as Members of Parliament, being investigated for potential fraud.”
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