Federal Labor MP quits intelligence committee role after admitting to branch stacking

Federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne has quit as deputy chair of Parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee amid scrutiny over his admission of branch stacking during an anti-corruption inquiry.

Mr Byrne, the member for Holt, told Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission earlier this week he had paid for other people’s party memberships as he turned whistleblower on what he described as a larger scheme of branch stacking led by former powerbroker Adem Somyurek.

Labor MP Anthony Byrne has quit the powerful federal intelligence and security committee.Credit: Alex Eddinghausen

He told the hearing the Labor Party was “completely out of control” and he had witnessed events he did not think he would ever see in the modern ALP.

On Tuesday, Commissioner Robert Redlich praised Mr Byrne’s candour, especially when it was against his own interests.

Mr Byrne resigned from the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security on Thursday afternoon, shortly after it reported on two of its inquiries.

“The work of the PJCIS is crucial to Australia’s national security and its integrity should never be questioned,” Mr Byrne said in a statement.

“I have always put the work of this bipartisan committee first and have always served in its best interests.”

He had told The Australian newspaper a day earlier he was not going anywhere.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will recommend Labor frontbencher Jenny McAllister replace Mr Byrne as deputy chair and Victorian MP Peter Khalil to fill the vacant spot on the committee.

Mr Khalil is a former national security adviser to Kevin Rudd and worked at Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade before entering politics.

Liberal senator James Paterson, the committee’s chair, said Mr Byrne’s approach to their work together had been “at the heart of the bipartisan culture of the committee”, but he understood the Labor MP’s decision to step down.

“It’s not my role to comment on internal Labor Party matters and certainly not potentially criminal matters before IBAC, it will follow its own course,” Senator Paterson told Sky News.

“But up until now, my dealings with Anthony on the committee, I’ve had no concerns at all and I guess he’s done the selfless thing in removing any doubt about that by stepping down from the committee.”

Senator Paterson said he had a good working rapport with Senator McAllister, who has been on the committee for two years, and a high regard for Mr Khalil.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Albanese clashed with radio presenter Ben Fordham on 2GB over whether he was going to take action against Mr Byrne after the MP’s admission of branch stacking.

Mr Albanese took a strong line against Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar when The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald last year revealed allegations staff in his office had been doing party political work against rules. Mr Sukkar denied the allegations and a Finance Department investigation did not find evidence of misuse of taxpayer-funded resources.

Mr Albanese has also been campaigning recently on the government’s failure to legislate a long-promised federal anti-corruption body.

But he said the difference between Mr Sukkar and Mr Byrne’s situations was the former was a minister.

“Byrne isn’t a minister, mate,” Mr Albanese said.

Pushed on whether he was happy for the Labor MP to stay sitting in Parliament, Mr Albanese said that wasn’t a decision for him to make.

“He’s a member of parliament. He hasn’t been attending the Parliament, Ben, because of the Victorian restrictions. He hasn’t been in Parliament for some time. For some time,” he said.

Fordham said Byrne was “a branch stacker, a confessed branch stacker” and questioned why Mr Albanese wasn’t taking action as leader.

Mr Albanese insisted “these issues will be dealt with” but it wouldn’t happen while the IBAC inquiry was going on.

“While the inquiry is going on, I have not spoken to Anthony Byrne. Because while people are appearing before a judicial body, the idea that the political leader will ring them and have a conversation with them while they’re giving evidence is entirely inappropriate,” he said.

Last year when the branch stacking allegations were brought to light, Mr Albanese acted swiftly to dismiss the Victorian ALP leadership and instigate an audit of its membership.

Mr Byrne said he would continue to fully cooperate with IBAC’s inquiry and did not plan to make any further comment while it continued.