Former Andrews cabinet minister Marlene Kairouz launches legal action against Labor Party

Marlene Kairouz has accused Labor party administrators Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin of bringing “trumped-up charges” against her in Supreme Court action.

Marlene Kairouz.

Former Andrews cabinet minister Marlene Kairouz has launched Supreme Court action against the Labor Party’s National Executive, accusing party administrators Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin of bringing “trumped-up charges” against her.

The move comes after Mr Bracks and Ms Macklin charged Ms Kairouz earlier this month with a range of branch-stacking offences and struck 1800 people off the ALP membership list in the biggest purge of members in the party’s history.

The former consumer affairs Minister was forced to resign from Daniel Andrews’ cabinet alongside her factional allies Adem Somyurek and Robin Scott in June last year, amid allegations of “industrial scale” branch stacking exposed through a series of videos filmed in the office of their erstwhile factional ally, federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne.

The allegations prompted Mr Andrews to announce the appointment of former premier Mr Bracks and former federal deputy Labor leader Ms Macklin as party administrators, with the voting rights of grassroots Labor Party members suspended.

Ms Kairouz now faces referral to Labor’s internal disputes tribunal and expulsion from the ALP if she is found guilty, as does mayor for the northeastern Melbourne local government area of Banyule, Rick Garotti, who last week resigned from the Labor Party.

In a letter sent to Caucus colleagues on Tuesday, Ms Kairouz said she was informing them with the “heaviest of hearts” that she had lodged an application with the Supreme Court of Victoria challenging actions by the National Executive.

She is being represented by Cornwalls law firm and prominent barrister John Karkar QC.

“While I am a proud member of the Australian Labor Party and proud member of the State Labor caucus, I feel I have little option but to pursue my legal rights and justice through the courts because I have formed the view that the investigation by the administrators, and the trumped-up charges brought by them against me, have been undertaken to justify a predetermined outcome,” Ms Kairouz wrote.

She said the party’s rules had been amended in September 2020, at the behest of Mr Bracks and Ms Macklin, “to expand the definition of ‘branch stacking’ well beyond the (previous definition) and to provide for a presumption of guilt of a person charged with the expanded branch stacking definition.

Jenny Macklin. Picture: AAP

“Worst (sic) still, the administrators have retrospectively applied the expanded definition and presumption of guilt in respect of alleged conduct prior to the amendment of the rules.

“These draconian steps are wholly contrary to our constitution that stands for fairness and civil rights.

“Under the administrators’ temporary powers, therefore, I am presumed to be guilty of charges for breaching new Party Rules unless I can prove I am innocent.

“This ‘presumptive guilt’ or ‘reverse onus’, which is an unknown practice in the ALP, only applies to those charged by the administrators.

“I am advised that I am the only person in the history of the party that is required to face the Disputes Tribunal on the new presumption of guilt rather than the presumption of innocence.”

Ms Kairouz said she was being charged “retrospectively on circumstantial and flimsy evidence”, contrary to “natural justice and fairness for which the ALP stands”, and “based on purported transcripts of alleged covert recordings which cannot be substantiated because an official supporting the investigation destroyed the recordings.”

“The covert recording was not only illegal, but violated my rights to privacy recognised in the ALP constitution.”

Steve Bracks. Picture: AAP

Ms Kairouz said Mr Bracks and Ms Macklin had charged her 67 minutes before their commission ceased at midnight on January 31.

“A further troubling feature of the way I was treated was the constant leaking and backgrounding of the media asserting that I was guilty of branch stacking,” Ms Kairouz alleged.

“Media outlets were given access to documents purporting to point to my guilt, including items of official correspondence from the administrators and their lawyers to me.

“In some cases, materials were leaked many days and weeks before they were sent to me.

“On 28 January 2021, three days before I was actually charged, media outlets reported I would be charged with a string of branch stacking breaches and lose my membership.

It is for all these reasons that the only recourse left open to me is to seek justice in the courts,” Ms Kairouz wrote.

Mr Bracks and Ms Macklin have been contacted for comment.