Kaushaliya Vaghela hits back after Daniel Andrews dismisses bullying claims as ‘fantasy’

Kaushaliya Vaghela says she’s “sickened” by the Victorian Premier’s response to her bullying allegations, revealing she first complained to his office in 2019.

Kaushaliya Vaghela with Daniel Andrews. Picture: Facebook

The female Labor MP whose bullying allegations Daniel Andrews dismissed as “a fantasy without foundation” has hit back, accusing the Victorian ALP and Premier of perpetuating a “victim-blaming attitude”.

After crossing the floor last week to vote in favour of her former factional ally Adem Somyurek’s motion for an investigation into the Victorian Premier’s alleged role in Labor’s red shirts rort, Kaushaliya Vaghela on Saturday revealed she had previously complained to the Premier’s office after allegedly being threatened by “party bullies” from his Socialist Left faction.

Ms Vaghela also alleged that the Premier had intimidated her and her colleagues to the point that they were “scared of him”.

After Mr Andrews described her claims as “fantasies” with “no basis in fact”, Ms Vaghela elaborated on her claims on Sunday afternoon, tweeting a statement in which she said she was “sickened by the government’s victim-blaming attitude, even going as far as questioning my state of mind and my motives by insinuating that I have recently made these claims because I have not been preselected”.

A former Labor staffer who worked for members of the Socialist Left, Ms Vaghela said the bullying was due to her decision to defect to Mr Somyurek’s faction, and detailed complaints she had made to the Premier’s principal private office, including to his chief of staff Lissie Ratcliff, as far back as 2019.

It was not until mid 2020 that allegations of Mr Somyurek’s involvement in branch-stacking came to light and he was sacked from cabinet and he and his associates publicly condemned by members of the government.

It was not until December last year that ALP powerbrokers dumped Ms Vaghela as a candidate for the November state election, after IBAC heard that month that her husband was paid taxpayer-funded salaries by three other MPs to do factional work.

Ms Vaghela on Sunday said she had been “bullied from the day I got elected because I dared to leave the Socialist Left faction.”

“I made numerous calls to the PPO for assistance and requested that the bullies be brought into line. I was largely ignored,” she said.

“I have a documented chronology going back to April 2019, when I first sat down to complain about the bullying I was being subjected to.

“This chronology will be provided to WorkSafe as part of my complaint.”

Ms Vaghela said she planned to tell her story “publicly in front of the cameras when I am ready to do so”.

“In the meantime, the Premier and his people are taking advantage of my absence by questioning (my) state of mind,” she said.

“Four years of bullying and abuse has taken its toll, so I ask the Premier and his team to stop.”

My Statement 13.02.2022 pic.twitter.com/lWYiFUjRiy

— Kaushaliya Vaghela MP (@KaushaliyaMP) February 13, 2022

Ms Vaghela also revealed that she had not until now been made aware that a member of the Premier’s staff who Mr Andrews said on Sunday was sacked following her complaint about him, had lost his job.

“The Premier says that the staff member concerned was sacked, so that should be the end of the matter,” she said.

“I was never informed that the staff member concerned was sacked, nor did I receive an apology from (the) Premier or his office, leaving (the staff member) in that position for years despite my complaints, thus perpetuating his bullying against me.”

Ms Vaghela went on to tweet a screenshot of a message she says she sent Ms Ratcliff on December 19, 2019, thanking her for returning her call.

“I am sick and tired of these men trying to bully, harass and intimidate me in all the ways they can. They are trying to defame me and malign my name,” Ms Vaghela wrote in the message.

“All these men are associated directly or indirectly with the Premier’s office. (Name redacted) actually wants to hurt me and my family. I am really scared for my safety. I really need your help for my and my family’s safety.

“Before I speak to the Premier, as a last resort, I am seeking your help to look into this matter.”

Indian-born Ms Vaghela says that when she sought an “interim intervention order” against a fellow Indian community member and member of the Premier’s faction whose name has been blacked out in the message, the person’s behaviour “escalated in a few days from sudden unnecessary praising to physically assaulting my husband at a public event”.

My text message sent to Premier's Chief of Staff on 19 December 2019. pic.twitter.com/SpBt5J97RX

— Kaushaliya Vaghela MP (@KaushaliyaMP) February 13, 2022

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Andrews was flanked by Transport Infrastructure Minister and the government’s leader in the Legislative Assembly, Jacinta Allan, Minister for Women Gabrielle Williams and two local female MPs as he dismissed the allegations at a press conference to mark the opening of the Cranbourne train line duplication in Melbourne’s outer southeast.

All four women present were members of the Premier’s Socialist Left faction.

“I won’t dignify those claims by commenting on them,” Mr Andrews said – before he and his senior female colleagues spent almost 10 minutes responding to questions about the allegations and defending the Premier’s record on women.

“There’s no need for me to respond to that. It’s just a fantasy without foundation, and I’m not going to enter into a debate on those things. Jacinta might want to speak to it though,” Mr Andrews said, inviting Ms Allan to weigh in.

“You can see evidence here today, this Premier has driven and led and enabled the strongest equality agenda this state has ever seen,” Ms Allan said.

“He doesn’t just talk the talk, this Premier walks the talk, and you can see it with the record number of women who sit around the cabinet table, across a huge range of different portfolios, working alongside the Premier on big and challenging issues, implementing each and every recommendation of the family violence royal commission, implementing all the recommendations of the mental health royal commission, backing it up with policy and funding at the same time.

“There has been the gender equality budgeting that the Minister for Women has worked on with the Premier.

“This is a big equality agenda, and quite frankly, these claims, these statements that have been made, are simply not true and cannot be stood up with the evidence that you see from the actions that the Premier has taken to support women, not just around the cabinet table, not just sitting on government boards but women right across the state of Victoria, in the actions and the policies he has led on behalf of the state.”

Ms Allan said Ms Vaghela had offered “no evidence” to support her allegations.

Mr Andrews did concede that a member of his staff had been sacked following Ms Vaghela’s complaint, but rejected her allegation that he had intimidated her and her colleagues to the point that they were “scared of him”.

“Frankly, these claims are just fantasy, fantasy, and I’m not getting into that. No basis in fact,” Mr Andrews

“I won’t dignify the stuff that’s been said about me. I’m just not going to.

“A complaint was made. I‘m not going to go into the details of that. People do have a right to privacy, including anyone who makes a complaint.

“But there were some issues with a staff member and that staff member was sacked. So to suggest that that’s not taking matters seriously.

“It wasn’t yesterday. It was some time ago. But to suggest that that’s not dealing with matters promptly and appropriately, I can’t think of a stronger rebuttal to that than the fact that it was taken very seriously, it was dealt with appropriately, and the person was essentially dismissed.”

Ms Williams said Ms Vaghela’s allegations did not reflect her personal experience or observations, or the work of the government.

“I, among with many of my colleagues, my women colleagues, could talk to our personal experiences of the Premier’s support, and most recently I’ve spoken very openly about my own IVF journey,” the Minister for Women said.

“I could not have wished for a more supportive workplace and a more supportive boss in that journey, and I know I’ve got many other colleagues who have many other similar and varied experiences, where they will tell you the same story of support of a boss for whom nothing was too much, who was more than accommodating of our circumstances, and that just does not match the claims that were made yesterday, and as Jacinta’s outlined, we have a cabinet of over 50 per cent women.

“We have, and I hope he doesn’t mind me saying, in the Premier’s own leadership team, his chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, who are women.

“We have a caucus which is almost 50 per cent women. You know, this is not the sign of somebody who is a misogynist. This is a sign, and a very demonstrable sign, of somebody who walks the walk, who is very inclusive of women, who lets women lead important areas of reform, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have that opportunity myself, and who is an open ear on issues that matter to women across our community, and that is demonstrated across a whole range of portfolio areas, and he has been, the Premier has been a significant voice in ensuring that gender equality is a feature not only of my portfolio, but of every portfolio in government.”

Mr Andrews concluded the press conference saying: “I reckon we might have spent just about enough time entertaining the fantasies of others.”