‘Mistake’ to arrest red shirt campaigners: Ombudsman

The police decision to arrest Labor Party campaigners in the lead-up to the 2018 election was a mistake, which helped spin a perception that wrongdoing in the so-called red shirts affair had gone unpunished, Ombudsman Deborah Glass has found.

Glass said on Thursday there was no justification to use more public resources investigating the red shirts affair, but such scandals would be repeated until genuine reforms were made in Victoria to strengthen integrity.

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass is pictured in December last year.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The ombudsman has handed down her second investigation into the scandal, which she described as an “artifice” in which Labor misused almost $400,000 of public money for campaign purposes.

The red shirts scandal refers to a scheme used in the 2014 election when campaign organisers were employed as casual electorate officers. The staff, who wore red Labor T-shirts, spent most of their working hours campaigning in marginal seats in a misuse of parliament’s budget.

In her initial report tabled in March 2018, Glass said the scheme was wrong, finding 21 MPs had breached parliament’s members’ guide. Labor repaid more than $387,000 as a result.

But the ombudsman said at the time there was no evidence the conduct met the criminal threshold of corruption, and on Thursday said no new evidence had come to light to change that or justify using more public resources.

“It is time to end this debate,” Glass said in her second report, tabled in the Victorian Parliament on Thursday. “I cannot, of course, rule out that further evidence may yet come to light but with the passage of time and difficulty in proof, I am not prepared to spend further public resources on these matters.”

Speaking to The Age after the report was tabled on Thursday, Glass said scandals, such as the red shirts affair, would continue to undermine public confidence in democracy if not dealt with comprehensively.

“There are simply no consequences [when conduct falls] short of criminality for people who cross the line,” she said.

Glass said parliament needed to create a framework so that bad behaviour could be punished, even if it fell short of the criminal threshold of corruption. She said it was disappointing that had not happened after she recommended an investigative agency in 2018.

“It is a matter for parliament to acknowledge that the problem here is the framework, and the lack of framework, for people who misuse public funds,” she said.

Victoria Police initially decided against taking action after finding no evidence of corruption, but started a new investigation in 2018 following a request from the opposition.

Months later, in August 2018, police arrested 17 former field organisers in early morning raids three months out from the state election.

Glass said the arrests seemed to create a public expectation that members of parliament would also be arrested, and a public belief that they must have been treated leniently.

“But in my view, the high-profile arrests of 17 people some four years after the events for which they were being questioned, was a mistake,” she said.

Nobody was charged, and no further arrests were made.

In response to a draft version of the report, Victoria Police said investigators had formed a reasonable belief that an indictable offence had been committed. “Five briefs of evidence were prepared for consideration for prosecution as a result of the arrests.”

On Thursday, a spokesman for Victoria Police said the force would not be apologising. “Victoria Police considers this matter closed and will not be re-investigating,” the spokesman said.

The ombudsman was required to reopen the red shirts probe after the Legislative Council, led by ousted Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek and with the opposition’s support, in February referred the scandal for investigation.

Adem Somyurek addresses the media at the Victorian parliament last week.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Premier Daniel Andrews, who has acknowledged that he was aware staff were engaging in campaign work when he was opposition leader, was not one of the 23 MPs connected to the red shirts scandal. Glass found no evidence he had been aware the scheme was an artifice or had played any role facilitating it, despite unsupported claims by Somyurek.

Asked about the ombudsman review on Thursday, Andrews said the matter had been well canvassed.

David Davis, the upper house leader of the opposition, said Andrews should be held to account for leading the party during the scheme.

“The only way to clean up the government is to vote them out in November,” Davis said.

“I think it’s a mistake to not hold the premier to account.”

A separate inquiry, Operation Watts, handed down by the ombudsman and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission last week, outlined a “catalogue of unethical and inappropriate behaviour” inside Victorian Labor.

The premier, who apologised for the party’s rotten culture, last week said he would seek to establish a parliamentary ethics committee to enforce beefed-up codes of conduct in response.

On Tuesday, former Victorian treasurer John Lenders announced he will step down from the Labor Party’s campaign committee preparing for the November 26 election.

Glass in 2018 said Lenders held the “greatest share of culpability” for the red shirts scheme. This week, Lenders said he did not want to be a distraction for the party.

Davis criticised the premier for standing by Lenders on Thursday.

Glass has opened a further review into the politicisation of the public service, exposed in an Age investigation, which is not expected to be finalised this year.

Operation Watts followed an investigation by The Age and 60 Minutes that exposed Somyurek’s branch-stacking operation. The inquiry made adverse findings against him and another former minister, Marlene Kairouz, but stopped short of referring them for criminal charges.

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