Rorts-for-votes probe as scandal splits Labor and hits Premier Daniel Andrews

LABOR’S rorts-for-votes scheme is under investigation as Parliament’s Upper House president declared that diverting electorate office funds for political campaigning was forbidden.

Premier Daniel Andrews under pressure during a rowdy question time at Parliament. Follow up tax payers fund story. Tax money was used to fund the ALPs election bid. Picture: Nicole Garmston

LABOR’S rorts-for-votes scheme is under investigation as Parliament’s Upper House president declared that diverting electorate office funds for political campaigning was forbidden.

And for the second day in a row Labor’s leader Premier Daniel Andrews dodged questions about the allegation taxpayer-funded staff were used for election campaigning last year.

At a press conference this morning Mr Andrews repeatedly confirmed staff had been pooled, however he brushed aside further questions saying “these are just claims’’.

He would not confirm or deny if Labor staff paid by parliament had worked in the Community Action Network field campaign.

“We will support the president and the speaker in all the work that they do,’’ Mr Andrews said.

Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, supposed to have been used to pay for MPs’ electorate officers, instead was used to help supply party organisers for an unprecedented election campaign blitz by Labor, the Herald Sun revealed.

Legislative Council president Bruce Atkinson announced on Wednesday that he and Legislative Assembly Speaker Telmo Languiller would probe allegations so as to establish whether a wider inquiry was required.

The scandal, sparked by claims of rorting by three Labor MPs and a senior party figure, engulfed Parliament on Wednesday.

A defiant Premier Daniel Andrews declared: “There are rules, and they have been followed.”

But Mr Atkinson said: “It is clearly set by the presiding officers that the people that are employed by the Parliament and paid for by the Parliament are there to support members of Parliament in their electoral duties and to support and assist constituents. They are not there for the campaign.”

“And that is the understood position,” Mr Atkinson said.

LABOR SHAKEN BY RORTS CRISIS

JAMES CAMPBELL: RORTS SAGA HAS LONG WAY TO GO

Coalition MPs seized on rorts allegations during the most explosive Question Time of the year, with several thrown out of the House for holding up the Herald Sun’s front-page report.

There is now open despair within the Government about leaks and caucus turmoil.

“We can’t remember a Labor Premier nine months in facing this level of internal dissent. And it’s all self-inflicted,” a senior Labor figure said on Wednesday night.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy called for an investigation into the affair, even flagging police involvement, and said Labor had been “completely rorting the rules set by this Parliament”.

“I challenge (the Premier) to produce just a single piece of paper that says using electorate officer resources in campaigning in roles either at Labor’s headquarters or for the Community Action Network is admissible under the current guidelines,” he said.

PROBE INTO ELECTION FUNDING SCANDAL

A federal Labor source said the party had been watching the Victorian election campaign with interest, as well as the manipulation of public funding on staffing matters.

“What Andrews was doing took it to a whole new level,” the source said.

Mr Andrews, in Cranbourne on Wednesday to announce 15 new schools, said he took ­responsibility for the “pooling of staff”, but said it was all above board.

“I take responsibility for each and every thing that happens under my leadership of the Labor Party and my leadership of the Government,” he said.

“I make no apology for a team of people — a tiny number of whom were employed to support their member of Parliament ... vastly outnumbered by an army of volunteers who were not paid — working as hard as possible to get rid of one of the worst governments this state has ever seen.”

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