Labor must now beware Adem Somyurek’s poison apples

Labor people remained silent on what was really going on with Somyurek ‘for the good of the party’. Picture: AAP

Whatever joy followed the toppling­ of a much-hated power­broker inside the Labor Party was quickly tempered by trepidation about what will certainly follow. Those who know Adem Somyurek, who have been fighting him for years and warning others about him, are confident there will be retribution — there will be other soiled reputations, careers wrecked and rolling Labor instability from now until the next federal­ election.

So many questions remain, includin­g where Somyurek obtained­ the huge sums required to buy so many memberships and how exactly he was allowed to become­ so powerful. One thing is obvious and that is that the person who helped bring him down was the same person who first brought him into the party.

Anthony Byrne, a Clark Kent lookalike, whose relationship with Somyurek is described in arrestingly understated language as “complicated”, has emerged as the central figure in the plot to destroy Somyurek in a belated effort to rescue the Victorian Labor Party.

Much of the filming and taping of Somyurek came from inside Byrne’s electorate office. Byrne has not spoken, but a tweet by him several hours before the airing of the 60 Minutes-The Age bombshell said it all.

Posted at 11.33am on Sunday, it was the photo of a gang-gang cockatoo pinned to a brick wall with a few words printed beside it: “My biggest worry is that people will believe someone else will do it!” Byrne attached a comment to the tweet: “Strangely apt wall art in Canberra this morning.”

Someone had to act. No Enigma machine was needed to crack that code. It was seen by his colleagues­ as the closest you could get to an ­admission of his involvement in the long, intricate plan to bring Somyurek undone, just enough to let the world and his colleagues know he had — finally –— stood up to dispose of the monster he helped create.

Elected to parliament in 1999, Byrne has spent most of the years since as a senior member of committees­ overseeing everything to do with spooks and spookdom. He has been deputy chairman of the joint committee on intelligence and securit­y since 2013. The committee chairman, Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie, strongly defends Byrne, describing him as honourable, a friend, and a patriot who would not do anything to compromise national security.

Byrne would, of course, be deeply familiar with laws relating to eavesdropping, taping and ­filming people without their knowledge or consent. His friends trust that he has stayed within the bounds of those laws, however, they worry that others — perhaps staff — might have overstepped and there could be unforeseen repercussion­s. They also do not discount the possibility that police were already involved, or at least alerted, before Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews formally referred the Somyurek matter to them on Monday.

Those who spoke to Byrne after the bomb went off on Sunday night described him as calm, collecte­d, unruffled. Absolutely in control of his emotions, and utterl­y at peace with himself. It’s fair to say they were mightily impresse­d by his composure. They surmised that Byrne, who had originally employed Somyurek, had simply had enough of the bullying and all the rest of it, and decided some time ago it had to end.

No wonder his nickname around the traps is Smiley, after George, the rumpled master spy from the John Le Carre novels who operated as a silent, method­ical planner of assassinations. Byrne has little or no public ­profile. Just like Smiley. He is regarded­ as a loner and seldom attends­ group dinners, preferring long walks by himself around Can­berra. He says he does it to lose weight, and he has lost a lot, but his friends say it’s really the quiet solitude he enjoys.

The events he has helped enginee­r are as murky and fascin­ating as any Le Carre novel. ­Bodies, blood, shame and deep despair­ everywhere. No one can predict the ending, although those who know Somyurek say everything they know suggests he will seek to take others down with him.

Police will sort the legalities. The political morass is for federal leader Anthony Albanese and for Andrews, neither of whom is a stranger to factional warfare.

Andrews’s performance during the pandemic has given him a buffer, including from Scott ­Morrison, who would rather keep the spotlight on Albanese. The Prime Minister has established a good working relationship with Andrews, who has played a vital role in the national cabinet. It would be awkward, to say the least, if Morrison had to build the road out of the recession without him.

Still, Andrews has to explain why — against the advice of factiona­l allies — he reinstated Somyurek to his frontbench after sacking him in 2015 for abusing his female chief of staff.

Albanese is far less responsible yet more exposed. While he bears scars from so many wars in NSW, this one is more difficult and more dangerous, and not because two-time loser Bill Shorten could be resurrected. As one Labor man said: “Labor gave Arthur Calwell three goes, it gave (former Victoria­n Labor leader) Clyde Holding three goes. We are not going to give Shorten three goes.”

Albanese insists he was alerted to the program only shortly before it aired. He refuses to ask Byrne about his role and has sounded both weak and uncertain when pressed on it. The usual rule is don’t ask a question unless you know the answer. Albanese hasn’t asked because he doesn’t want to know. The more he knows, the more questions he has to answer, the deeper he gets dragged in.

The government has sought to exploit his discomfort, but any attempt to punish Byrne could face fierce cross-chamber resistance.

Albanese barely knows Somyurek­, but he was aware of his alleged involvement federally, includin­g during last year’s leadership manoeuvring as part of ­attempted payback against Albanese’s deputy, Richard ­Marles.

Albanese’s challenge is to ensure the damage doesn’t seep too deeply into the federal caucus and to ensure the national executive fixes the Victorian branch. Good luck with that. Bullies and branch stackers, male and female, survive and prosper inside all political parties­. After decapitation, they are replaced by someone else only too eager to do the dirty work.

Too often, according to those in the know, people were convinced for the good of the party to stay quiet about what was really going on with Somyurek.

Which helps explain why Labor is where it is now, two weeks from a critical by-election, trying to quash a crisis which threatens to play all the way to the next ­general election.