Rorts-for-votes: Ombudsman spent $130,000 on legal fight to investigate ‘red-shirts’ scandal

VICTORIAN Ombudsman Deborah Glass was forced to spend more than $130,000 of taxpayers’ money to fight Labor’s attempts to block her investigation into their red shirts rorts scandal.

VICTORIAN Ombudsman Deborah Glass was forced to spend more than $130,000 of taxpayers’ money to fight Labor’s attempts to block her investigation into their red shirts rorts.

The Herald Sun can reveal the legal bill escalated as Labor repeatedly challenged her authority in the courts.

Figures released as part of a parliamentary inquiry reveal the Ombudsman spent $52,806 on external legal fees for the initial Supreme Court case.

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Her office was then hit with another $81,187 bill for “subsequent proceedings and external legal advice”.

The costs come on top of the $139,000 spent by the government and $331,817 billed to the Legislative Council.

However, those fees — totalling $604,811 — do not include legal work by the Solicitor-General’s office or other internal advice.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass handed down her report in March. Picture: David Caird

Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto said Labor should repay “every dollar spent on legal fees trying to cover up their rorts”.

“This is taxpayer money that could and should have been spent on nurses or teachers,” he said.

But a government spokeswoman said: “We won’t take lectures from the Liberals on legal costs”.

The Herald Sun has also obtained a copy of an independent audit of how Parliament was employing casual electorate officers in the wake of revelations about the red shirts rort in 2015.

The audit, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and finalised in 2016, warned there were inconsistencies and ambiguities in the rules for employing electorate officers, which Labor was able to take advantage of with its controversial scheme.

But the report also declared that the parliamentary members guide made it clear electorate officers were “prohibited from undertaking party political activity”, and that was “commonly understood” by MPs and staff.

A Labor party organiser during the 2014 election campaign. Picture: Andrew Tauber

Labor instead used taxpayers’ money to hire casual electorate officers who also worked as field organisers for its 2014 election campaign.

The audit tested a sample of time sheets filed by electorate officers and found 87 per cent failed to declare the reason for payment.

PricewaterhouseCoopers delivered a string of recommendations to tighten the system, that included updating internal training and documentation and amending time sheets to include activity codes and work locations.

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