Taxpayers slugged in government’s legal fight with Mulgrave candidate

More than $1.6 million in taxpayers’ money has been spent fighting catering company owner Ian Cook, who has accused former chief health officer Brett Sutton of unlawfully ordering the closure of his business.

Government documents, released to the state opposition under freedom of information laws, detail the mounting legal bill for the four-year battle against Cook, who claims health authorities planted a slug on his company’s premises.

Independent candidate Ian Cook who is suing the government, will contest the Mulgrave byelection Credit: Eamon Gallagher

Cook is suing the Department of Health and Human Services for $50 million in damages.

According to a list of invoices seen by The Sunday Age, the $1.6 million bill includes legal fees until June 30, before the matter was heard in the Supreme Court in August.

“I do not think this is a good use of taxpayers’ money,” said Cook, who is gearing up to run in next month’s Mulgrave byelection following the resignation of former premier Daniel Andrews.

Mayor Eden Foster has been endorsed as Labor’s candidate for the seat of Mulgrave.

More than 40,000 voters in the south-east Melbourne suburbs of Mulgrave, Wheelers Hill, Springvale, Noble Park and Dandenong North will go to the polls on November 18 to choose a replacement for Andrews.

Cook stood as an independent against Andrews in Mulgrave at the 2022 state election and finished second on primaries with 18 per cent of the vote, which resulted in 39.2 per cent of the two-candidate preferred vote after preferences.

Eden Foster, a clinical psychologist and the mayor of Greater Dandenong, has been endorsed as Labor’s candidate. Labor holds the seat by a strong margin of 10 per cent but will face competition from the Liberal Party after the party’s administrative committee agreed to field a candidate at a meeting on Thursday.

With one month until polling day, the committee agreed to select a candidate rather than hold a local preselection and will make that decision on Monday.

The decision was backed by Opposition Leader John Pesutto.

“We want to give the people of Mulgrave an alternative,” he said. “On November 18 the people of Mulgrave will have a choice between a tired Labor government or a new direction for Victoria.”

Hairdresser Michael Piastrino, who unsuccessfully ran as the Liberal Party’s Mulgrave candidate in 2022, is expected to put himself forward as a candidate. Piastrino’s campaign imploded when he was forced to apologise for accusing Andrews of “the murder of 800 people” stemming from hotel quarantine leaks.

Local Liberal member Jeff Kidney was being encouraged to submit an application on Friday.

The Greens’ candidate is Dandenong councillor Rhonda Garad and the Victorian Socialists will put forward Kelly Cvetkova.

Political strategists from both Labor and the Liberal Party have privately questioned whether Cook will attract the same level of support and attention following Andrews’ resignation, but believe his preferences will be key to deciding the result.

On Friday, Cook said he would not make a decision about preferences until after the Liberal Party confirmed its candidate.

“Andrews and Labor promised they’d stick out the term in Mulgrave and they haven’t,” he said.

“I don’t carry baggage from either party and I understand both sides and I think this is a good chance for the people of Mulgrave to maybe have a crack at an independent.”

Ian Cook ran as an independent candidate in last year’s state election.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

In August, Cook’s lawyer told the Supreme Court that Sutton had acted outside his powers as chief health officer and destroyed Cook’s business – I Cook Foods – by prematurely ordering its closure.

The Dandenong South food supplier was forced to close in February 2019 after health officials determined it had provided food to 86-year-old Knox Private Hospital patient Jean Painter, who later died from a listeria infection.

Cook is yet to find out whether he has been successful in his multimillion dollar bid but a spokesperson for Department of Health said legal costs incurred by the government would “largely” be covered by insurers.

Cook said his legal team expected a result in his case against the Department of Health and Human Services between November and February – after the Mulgrave preselection.

Shadow health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said the legal fees were an example of “Labor’s waste and mismanagement”.

“It seems the government will go to any lengths, including wasting over one and a half million dollars of taxpayers’ money, to hide the truth about what really happened,” she said.

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