Victorian Labor MPs briefed on party’s rorts-for-votes scheme
VICTORIAN Labor MPs were briefed on the party’s rorts-for-votes scheme, a senior minister has revealed to a parliamentary inquiry.
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VICTORIAN Labor MPs were briefed on the party’s rorts-for-votes scheme, a senior minister has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Special Minister for State Gavin Jennings told the Legislative Council Privileges Committee last night a meeting of all the party’s MPs was given the presentation.
He said: “My memory was that there was a discussion at caucus conference about it in general terms, and subsequent individual conversations.”
He said he could not recall whether Premier Daniel Andrews, then Opposition leader, had been at the meeting for the presentation.
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“The leader of the parliamentary party may or may not be in attendance of particular (agenda) items,” Mr Jennings said.
And in an apparent swipe at the Ombudsman, who investigated the rorts-for-votes scheme, he said the watchdog had chosen to call it an artifice “for effect, I’d suggest”.
Mr Jennings said he never believed the scheme had been inappropriate because he had thought that there was a clear demarcation between the roles of electorate officers and election campaigners.
“In retrospect, the demarcation was not as clear as it should have been,” he said.
Mr Jennings said the caucus discussion “was a brief interaction” at a caucus meeting, not at Parliament House but at a “caucus retreat”.
The Upper House committee is inquiring into a misuse of about $388,000 of parliamentary funds in which the ALP part-paid for full-time campaign staff via MPs’ electorate office budgets.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said this morning a decision on whether to press charges over the ALP red shirts rort is imminent.
“I think we are expecting a decision within days on that,” he said on 3AW.
“We are very close on that.”
He rejected claims police command is too close to government.
“We have to work with the government of the day,” he said.
“That’s what we do. This government is rolling out a lot of announcements with policing. It is appropriate the government stands up and talks about that investment.
“We are neutral. I work with the government of the day and if the opposition forms government, we will work with them.”
Mr Jennings said other than speaking to Labor’s then Upper House leader, John Lenders, he sought advice through his own office on “the way in which time sheets could or should be completed”.
“Mr Lenders was my conduit to actually the nature of the overall arrangement and specifically I sought some advice in relation to time sheets,” Mr Jennings said.
He said he also queried Mr Lenders on electorate staff wearing “red shirts” because he did not want them to lose sight of their responsibilities in MPs’ offices.
“The issue that I was concerned about (was) … the potential for there to be some confusion involved in officers’ responsibilities,” he said. “I was always alive to that issue and always concerned about it.”
Asked by Greens MP Nina Springle whether this meant he knew something “not quite right was going on”, Mr Jennings said: “No, not really.”
Asked about Mr Andrews’ knowledge of the scheme, Mr Jennings said: “At no stage did he or anybody else in the Labor Party believe they were participating in an ‘artifice’.”
The inquiry heard last week that senior Labor MP Adem Somyurek had raised the scheme with Mr Andrews after a caucus meeting before the 2014 election.
“I sort of raised the matter, probably for my own comfort and reassurances. The whole thing probably lasted a few seconds,” he said.
Mr Somyurek also told the Legislative Council Privileges Committee: “I raised this matter with him (Mr Andrews).
“He referred me back to John (Lenders).”
Ombudsman Deborah Glass and police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton have also given evidence. Police confirmed they were “days away” from a decision on whether to launch a formal police investigation.
Mr Jennings’ evidence at the inquiry comes amid a political brawl over how the names and salaries of Liberal staff members in 2014 were released publicly this week. A television report, including payment figures, referred to Freedom of Information documents.
But the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Chris Eccles, said an FOI claim had not come through his department.
The government says the document shows a jump in the number of Liberal ministerial staffers hired before the last state election.
Deputy Premier James Merlino said some of those staff didn’t take proper leave during the last election.
But he did not provide evidence that they were paid while doing campaign work.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy accused the government of improperly accessing Victorians’ private salary details, but Mr Merlino and Mr Jennings said they did not know how the document referred to was released.
“I am not aware of who released that information, but I have had conversations with the head of the public service about the matter,” Mr Jennings said.
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