Adem Somyurek makes bombshell return to politics with Democratic Labour Party

Rebel ex-Labor MP Adem Somyurek is making a last-minute return to politics, saying he is “the only person” who can hold Dan Andrews to account.

Former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek has joined the Democratic Labour Party and will seek to be re-elected to the state’s upper house.

In a shock move less than two weeks after announcing his retirement from politics, Mr Somyurek has joined the party now being led by his former political foe Bernie Finn.

Mr Somyurek, speaking exclusively to the Herald Sun, said holding Daniel Andrews to account would be a key priority.

“I changed my mind after I resigned from parliament because of the extraordinary feedback from the electorate pleading for me to stay on and continue to hold (Premier Dan) Andrews to account,” he said.

“After this feedback, I realised that my state needed me. Victorians are worried about their future. I am the only person who can hold him to account.

“Andrews has no internal opposition inside the ALP because by hook or by crook he has quashed any dissent or exiled anyone with the strength to demand collective decision-making, transparency and accountability.

Adem Somyurek has joined the Democratic Labour Party and will seek to be re-elected to the state’s upper house. Picture: Tony Gough

“I know Andrews intimately. I have competed with him and sometimes worked with him for over twenty-five years in the ALP’s toxic factional system, as a parliamentarian and as a minister.

“We went into parliament together in 2002. “I know how Andrews thinks. I know how Andrews runs his government, cabinet, and party room.

“I know his party because until a couple of years ago I governed it.

“I am the only person that can deal with him. Andrews does not govern with a velvet glove. He rules with an iron fist and only respects an iron fist coming down on him.

“While many people are intimidated by Andrews, I have his measure and will hold him to account.”

Mr Somyurek will run as the candidate for the Northern Metropolitan region and said he will sit in the “sensible centre of Victorian politics” with a focus on representing working families.

If elected to the upper house Mr Somyurek could cause chaos during the next parliamentary term, particularly with pollsters flagging the real possibility of a minority government.

The move could see the former ALP powerbroker turned into a political kingmaker.

In November he caused mayhem after breaking his self imposed parliamentary exile to block the government’s pandemic management legislation.

It forced the Bill to be delayed and a raft of changes to the proposed legislation before it was ultimately passed.

Mr Somyurek said he will sit in the “sensible centre of Victorian politics”. Picture: David Geraghty

Adem Somyurek has joined the party now being led by his former political foe Bernie Finn. Picture: Tony Gough

“As an ALP right-wing faction powerbroker, my job in the ALP was to constrain the excesses of Socialist Left extremists to ensure that the ALP was firmly anchored in the centre so that the party could implement sensible policies that deliver for working families in the suburbs while exercising financial responsibility,” he said.

“The Socialist Left-controlled ALP is no longer a real working-class party. It is merely a vehicle for a private school-educated inner-city elitist cabal, contemptuous of the working class, to exploit the working class to enhance their own political careers.

“The ALP is now more interested in spending endless hours pontificating over defining gender than they are driven by bread-and-butter issues.

“These are issues that matter to working families, such as jobs, our health system, our education system, community safety, cost of living and housing.

“The working families in the suburbs will now have a real choice about which type of Labour party they want to represent them: a moderate Labour party interested in their bread-

and-butter issues or an ideological, extremist Socialist Left ALP wasting time and resources fighting cultural wars and playing identity politics.”

During a 20-year parliamentary career Mr Somyurek has never been far from controversy.

He first hit the headlines in 2003 when he threw his support behind Australia’s involvement in the war against Iraq, and called on all Victorian Muslims to support the attack on Saddam Hussein.

His views went beyond those of then party leader, Premier Steve Bracks, who said he would only support UN-sanctioned involvement.

In 2009 then premier John Brumby was forced to publicly chastise Somyurek after he was given a one-month suspended jail sentence and $300 fine for driving his taxpayer-funded car while disqualified.

Somyurek said holding Daniel Andrews to account would be a key priority.

It saw Mr Brumby force Somyurek to stand down as head of the Electoral Matters Committee.

Somyurek had lost his licence for accumulating too many demerit points for a range of driving offences when he was caught driving while on the phone.

In 2014 Somyurek was back in the news for a schoolboy parliamentary prank in which he shone a laser pointer at the face of his new leader Mr Finn, then a Liberal MP, during upper house question time.

He was twice sacked as a government minister, first in 2015 when his then chief of staff Dimity Paul made complaints about a “pattern of abusive and inappropriate ­behaviour”.

He was the minister for Local Government and Small Business when he was sacked by the Premier, for the second time, and given a life ban from the ALP in June 2020.

It followed accusations of branch stacking and illegal criminal activity.

A subsequent joint investigation between the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission and the Victorian Ombudsman concluded Andrews government ministers and their staffers blatantly abused their access to taxpayer money by preoccupying themselves with securing factional power and finding jobs for mates.

Daniel Andrews on Monday batted away questions about Mr Somyurek’s bid to return to parliament: “I haven’t given that much thought. That’s a matter for him,” he said.

The Premier was asked if he thought Mr Somyurek was fit for parliament given the findings from Operation Watts.

At the time, Mr Andrews described the revelations of branch stacking as “absolutely disgraceful”.

“That’s a matter for him and a matter for voters,” he responded.

“I don’t give much thought to those matters.”

Asked if it was inappropriate to have promoted Mr Somyurek to his cabinet on two separate occasions, Mr Andrews said: “Well that wasn’t inappropriate. That might not have been very wise, but it wasn’t inappropriate.”

Mr Somyurek hit back on social media, stating: “What a stupid question to ask of a guy entangled in four IBAC investigations and presided over Victoria’s biggest political rorts scandal.”

Mr Somyurek has accused Mr Andrews of branch stacking and being instrumental in Labor’s infamous Red Shirts election rort.

The rort saw almost $388,000 in taxpayers’ money spent on part-paying electorate staff to campaign for the 2014 election.