Daniel Andrews must act on mea culpa for unethical conduct

After seven years of ducking and weaving over Victorian Labor’s “red shirts” rort, when the party misused taxpayers’ resources by using electorate office staff to campaign in 2014, Premier Daniel Andrews finally has been forced to face the music. Four months before the state election in November, Mr Andrews had no alternative other than to apologise and to take full responsibility for the unethical behaviour in his party and its factions. On Wednesday the Operation Watts report, a joint investigation by the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Ombudsman, condemned government MPs’ misuse of power and backed sweeping reforms. While the investigation focused mainly on Labor’s Moderate faction, formerly headed by ex-cabinet minister Adem Somyurek, the report made clear that the issues were systemic.

Actions, which is what Mr Andrews has promised, speak louder than words. It remains to be seen how long, for instance, Mr Andrews leaves former Labor treasurer John Lenders on the election committee that will run the government’s forthcoming campaign. Opposition upper house leader David Davis has called on Mr Andrews to sack Mr Lenders from the committee. In her 2018 report into the rort, Ombudsman Deborah Glass found Mr Lenders carried “the greatest share of culpability” in the red shirts rort and that as “a senior member of parliament, former minister and treasurer, and leader of the government in the Legislative Council, he should have known better”. Mr Lenders, who had been a minister in the Brumby and Bracks governments, had recruited 21 Labor MPs into the scheme in which public funds earmarked to pay for electorate officers were diverted to bankroll red shirt election campaigners. As the Ombudsman said: “There is undoubtedly a blurred line between permissible and impermissible uses of parliamentary funds … In seeking to maximise the use of resources available to the party for the 2014 campaign, Mr Lenders crossed this line.”

After the Ombudsman’s 2018 report, Mr Andrews apologised for the scheme and the Victorian ALP repaid $388,000. Despite extensive media coverage, the issue had little impact on the 2018 election, in which the Andrews government won an additional eight lower house seats. The coming election could be a different story. The red shirts rort is now better understood by voters. And integrity was a major issue in the federal election in May, including in Melbourne seats where teal independents campaigned strongly over the Morrison government’s failure to deliver a federal integrity commission. Teals are expected to contest the state poll against both major parties.

On Wednesday, Mr Andrews took a lesson from the playbook of former Queensland premier Peter Beattie, who knew how to turn political crises to advantage by apologising profusely and asking voters for another term to fully fix the problem. “I’m absolutely focused on not just delivering this reform but delivering on all the promises that we made to the Victorian community,” Mr Andrews said. It is a problem for him, however, that the Operation Watts report says Mr Andrews was aware of the widespread use of branch stacking in the ALP for decades. Mr Andrews denied any personal knowledge or involvement in such practices. But he was “aware of such allegations through talk within the party, reviews, rule changes and from the time when he worked at ALP head office”. The report is also a challenge for the opposition, which needs to show the will and the skill to make the case for a fresh start.