Victoria’s biggest political scandals of the past decade
This week a Victorian politician was axed for “inappropriate behaviour”. It’s the latest in a long list of political scandals ranging from allegations of branch stacking to a hotel quarantine disaster that have played out in recent years. See the list.
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Victoria has witnessed no shortage of political scandals in the last decade.
From allegations of branch staking to a hotel quarantine disaster, the axing of the Commonwealth Games and the infamous car crash involving a former Premier, the Herald Sun has recapped some of the biggest political scandals to make headlines.
Darren Cheeseman
Labor MP Darren Cheeseman was axed from the party this week amid allegations of “inappropriate behaviour”.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan issued a short statement on Monday night confirming Mr Cheeseman, a state MP since 2018 and federal MP from 2007-2013, had resigned from Labor’s parliamentary team at her request.
The statement came 72 hours after the Premier requested Mr Cheeseman stand down from his parliamentary secretary education role, which he did.
He is alleged to have made multiple female staff feel “uncomfortable” with unwanted comments of a sexual nature, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Ms Allan’s change of heart, which she said stemmed from fresh allegations of “persistent, inappropriate behaviour”, pleased many of her colleagues who were initially dismayed that Mr Cheeseman wasn’t booted when the allegations were first brought to her attention.
Ms Allan said the alleged actions did not warrant police action, rather Mr Cheeseman was removed “as a consequence of upholding the highest standards”.
Mr Cheeseman has kept silent other than for a Facebook post in the early hours of Tuesday morning where he said he would “continue to serve the people of South Barwon as their MP”. His parliamentary biography now lists him as an independent.
Will Fowles
Dumped Labor MP Will Fowles was forced to resign last August after sexual assault allegations surfaced following an alleged incident with a ministerial staffer in Melbourne’s CBD.
Mr Fowles publicly accused former Premier Daniel Andrews at the time of orchestrating a political hit job.
The Ringwood MP made his return to parliament in February this year, after he was cleared by a police investigation.
But Premier Jacinta Allan ruled out welcoming him back to the parliamentary Labor Party, saying “every woman deserves the right to a safe and secure workplace”. He is now an independent MP.
It comes after Mr Fowles was questioned by police after he flew into a rage and smashed in the bottom half of a door at a Canberra hotel in 2019. The MP said at the time that he had been dealing with “addiction and other mental health issues”.
Commonwealth Games debacle
The Victorian government spectacularly cancelled the Commonwealth Games in July last year, claiming the event had blown out from $2.6bn to nearly $7bn.
The Commonwealth Games Federation was only given eight hours notice about the government’s sudden backflip on hosting the major sporting event and the decision left regional cities reeling and some elite sportspeople in tears.
A parliamentary inquiry into the axing of Games is midway through its investigations.
In an interim report published on Tuesday, Select Committee on the 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid chair David Limbrick said the government had refused to co-operate with the inquiry.
Jacinta Allan, former premier Daniel Andrews and former major events minister Martin Pakula all refused to testify before the inquiry.
Last month Victoria’s auditor general, Andrews Greaves, published a report from a separate inquiry which blamed a lack of due diligence and bureaucratic incompetence for the games debacle.
He called for a comprehensive review into why key agencies did not work together effectively to give frank, full and timely advice to the government.
He also cast doubt over government claims of a cost blowout to almost $7bn, saying the figure was overstated.
Mr Greaves found the cancelled event had cost Victoria $589m including $150m in employee and operating costs.
Moira Deeming
Opposition leader John Pesutto is currently facing three defamation actions over his moves to expel Moira Deeming from his party.
Mr Pesutto moved to expel Ms Deeming last March after she attended a Let Women Speak rally on the steps of Parliament House.
As part of his campaign to expel her, Mr Pesutto compiled and distributed a 15-page dossier of evidence backing his case.
In it, he accused her of having Nazi links and “conducting activities in a manner likely to bring discredit on the parliament or the Parliamentary Party”.
It resulted in a nine-month ban from the party room. She was later expelled from the party.
Ms Deeming’s action is already under way in the Federal Court, with British activist Kellie Jay Keen and Melbourne woman Angie Jones confirming in March they too would launch actions.
It came as Mr Pesutto publicly released a list of donors funding his case, revealing a consortium of three ex-premiers, five individuals and four companies who have contributed to a fighting fund.
They include Jeff Kennett, Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine, former media adviser Nick Johnston and companies including Delatite Pastoral Company and the Bau Agency.
Bernie Finn
Former Liberal MP Bernie Finn was ousted from the party in 2022 after he made a series of offensive social media posts about his wishes for Victoria to ban abortion, including comments he made that rape victims shouldn’t be able to terminate pregnancies.
A motion to expel the controversial MP from the parliamentary Victorian Liberal Party was formally passed at a party room meeting in May.
Former opposition leader Matthew Guy said at the time the ongoing offensive commentary was not welcome in the party.
Tim Smith
Disgraced Shadow Attorney-General Tim Smith was caught driving three times over the legal drinking limit in October 2021.
Mr Smith ploughed his Jaguar into another car, before then crashing into a fence of a home on Power St in Hawthorn.
He stumbled in two “train wreck” interviews at the time in which he contradicted himself several times over his drink-drive smash.
Mr Smith subsequently quit politics ahead of the 2022 election, following calls from former opposition leader Matthew Guy for the former Kew MP not to contest his seat.
Hotel quarantine disaster
The decision to shun offers from the Australian Defence Force to help at quarantine hotels and instead use private security guards didn’t cost just the $65.7m recorded in government ledgers.
It cost about 800 Victorian lives, 18,374 infections and $12bn ripped from the Victorian economy.
Criminal charges against Victoria’s health department over the disastrous hotel quarantine program were dropped this week due to a legal loophole.
WorkSafe charged the Department of Health with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act in 2021, alleging guests and staff were endangered by its Covid-19 hotel quarantine scheme that led to a deadly second wave and plunged the state into lockdown.
But the Office of Public Prosecutions on Tuesday withdrew the charges, saying its case had been “substantially weakened” after a County Court judge last month excluded 10 witnesses from giving evidence at trial.
The witnesses were employees or agents of the health department and provided statements to the Hotel Quarantine Board of Inquiry — a public hearing — in 2020.
As their statements were provided to the inquiry on the department’s behalf, the judge ruled prosecutors could not use their evidence in criminal proceedings.
WorkSafe, which conducted a 15-month investigation that involved the review of tens of thousands of documents, said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision not to pursue criminal charges, which could have resulted in fines of up to $95m.
Branch stacking allegations
In 2020 the Labor Party appointed former premier Steve Bracks and former Gillard government minister Jenny Macklin to oversee an audit of the party’s membership following revelations of industrial branch stacking led by powerbroker Adem Somyurek.
Branch stacking allows individuals or groups to control or influence branches. That can determine preselection of election candidates and internal party positions.
Mr Somyurek was sacked in the wake of the report and the issue was referred to the anti-corruption watchdog.
The audit found thousands of memberships were not legitimate.
Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission also investigated the claims last year.
It found “egregious” misconduct by Labor MPs, including rampant nepotism, widespread misuse of public resources and a culture of branch stacking dating back decades.
Lobster with a mobster
Former Liberal leader Matthew Guy’s tough-on-crime campaign was permanently tainted when his secret Lobster Cave dinner with an alleged mafia boss was exposed.
Mr Guy dined at the Beaumaris Lobster Cave restaurant with Tony Madafferi in 2017, a wealthy market gardener and the owner of the La Porchetta pizza chain.
The meeting was organised by fruit and vegetable grower Frank Lamattina to discuss issues in the industry.
Mr Guy said at the time he did not know Mr Madafferi would be at the dinner until he arrived, political donations were never discussed and none have since been received.
But leaked phone call recordings involving Liberal Party figure Barrie MacMillan suggested the meeting was designed to procure political donations and Mr Guy knew Mr Madafferi would be present.
Mr MacMillan quit his role as electorate conference secretary for the federal seat of Dunkley as a result.
Steve Herbert
Former Andrews Government minister Steve Herbert was caught using his taxpayer-funded car to chauffeur pet dogs Patch and Ted between his Melbourne home and Trentham country house, as revealed by the Herald Sun in 2016.
A copy of his expenses showed that in the six months to April 2016, Mr Herbert’s office splurged almost $43,000.
This included $423 for Christmas cards, a pair of earphones worth $163 and $346 for coffee supplies.
He also claimed $235 for new fittings on his ministerial car which he used to have his dogs chauffeured in between his home in Parkdale and his country house in Trentham.
A 2015 expenses claim included $280 for a new milk frother.
Mr Herbert quit Cabinet soon after the revelations, saying he didn’t want to remain a distraction for the government. Four months later he retired from state parliament.
Fire services reform
Between 2014 and 2017 the Andrews Government secretly worked towards splitting the state’s fire services – a move blamed for the falling number of CFA volunteers.
The restructuring – which resulted in the new professional Fire Rescue Victoria force replacing the Metropolitan Fire brigade and splitting off the volunteer CFA force – ended in the CFA board being sacked.
The move took its toll on the government. Then Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett quit the ministry in revolt and the split is now subject to two ongoing inquiries by the state anti-corruption watchdog with the interactions between the powerful United Firefighters Union and the Andrews government being probed.
Red shirts scandal
The Victorian Labor Party was found to have misused $388,000 in parliamentary allowances to pay political campaign staff during the 2014 election.
The Victorian Ombudsman found 21 past and present Labor MPs breached parliamentary guidelines when staff were diverted to help campaign for members.
However in her investigation into the matter, outgoing Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass said there was no evidence to find Mr Andrews designed the scheme.
Rather, evidence showed he was “involved and immersed in the Red Shirts campaign in 2014, as he necessarily would have been as party leader”.
The rort was subject to a police investigation spanning more than 12 months, but ultimately no criminal charges were laid by police.
Dan’s car crash
Daniel Andrews has refused to confirm where he was prior to a now infamous 2013 car crash that left a teenage cyclist Ryan Meuleman severely injured, as contradicting stories saw the matter referred to IBAC.
It came after the Herald Sun revealed a witness had claimed that Daniel and Catherine Andrews lunched at a Mornington Peninsula sailing club prior to the crash – and that the claim had been referred to the state’s anti-corruption commission.
The Premier’s phone records from the day of the smash and a recording of his triple-0 emergency call are also being subpoenaed as part of a Supreme Court damages action.
Mr Andrews and his wife said they were returning to their holiday rental after a morning at “the beach” when the incident occurred.
But in a sworn statement as part of Supreme Court proceedings by Portsea local Jane Crittenden, she states: “He (Daniel Andrews) … said to me that they were returning from the Sailing Club where they had been having lunch. I distinctly remember him saying these things.”
Mr and Mrs Andrews have always maintained Ryan’s bike “T-boned” their Ford Territory, while Ryan insists the Andrews’ car was “speeding” and “seemed to come out of nowhere” when he was struck 17m from the Melbourne Rd and Ridley St corner.
Secret police photographs uncovered by the Herald Sun in November 2022 supported Ryan’s claims, revealing extensive damage to the front of the car and its windscreen.
In April last year, the Herald Sun revealed an Ambulance Victoria report detailed the car “struck” Ryan while “travelling at 40 to 60km/h”.
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