Coronavirus: ’Unnamed’ abattoir cluster has close personal ties to Labor MPs

The personal links between the family at the centre of Victoria’s worst coronavirus cluster and the state government go back more than a decade.

The now-shuttered Cedar Meats factory in Melbourne’s Brooklyn. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The personal links between the family at the centre of Victoria’s worst coronavirus cluster and the state government go back more than a decade.

The Australian can reveal that when one of the founders of Cedar Meats died in 2010, three MPs who are now part of the Andrews government paid tribute with condolence motions in parliament.

Upper House MP Nazih Elasmar went so far as to describe Samir Kairouz as “more than a brother to me”.

The revelation follows the refusal by the government and the health department to name Cedar Meats at the weekend — even though 15 COVID-19 cases had been linked to the Melbourne abattoir — despite naming a school linked to just one inactive case.

There have been 49 cases of the virus linked to Cedar Meats, which employs 350 people.

Earlier this week, it was ­revealed that Samir’s brother Pierre Kair­ouz made a $15,000 ­donation on the company’s behalf ahead of Labor winning government in 2014.

There is no allegation against the operators of Cedar Meats, just questions about the government’s handling of the issue.

The Australian can further reveal that in May 2018, the ­Andrews government’s then agriculture minister, Jaala Pulford, announced the Kairouz family’s Meatco abattoir in Mildura would receive $2m in “regional jobs” funding to refurbish and recommission the facility, with sheep and goat carcasses to be supplied to the Cedar Meats abattoir in the western Melbourne suburb of Brooklyn, which is at the centre of the COVID-19 cluster.

Premier Dan Andrews confirmed his Consumer Affairs Minister Marlene Kairouz was not related to the Cedar Meats owners.

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“It is my understanding there is no connection, other than by family name, which is a very popular family name in the community,” Mr Andrews said of Ms Kairouz, whose parents are both Maronite Catholics from Lebanon.

“She’s very proud of her heritage. I’m very proud of her.

“She has a name that is very common within the community that she and her parents are from, and that is the end of it,” Mr ­Andrews said.

On May 27, 2010, Ms Kairouz paid tribute in parliament to Samir Kairouz, who had died on May 18, aged 61, after attending his funeral two days earlier. “At least 3000 people paid tribute to a man who lived a rich life centred on family and his Catholic Maronite faith,” Ms Kairouz said. “That was the essence of the man I knew, and it was only appropriate that we celebrated his life at Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church on 25 May in a way that was fitting for a king.”

Mr Elasmar had two days earlier paid tribute in parliament, having come directly from the funeral in the northern Melbourne suburb of Thornbury.

“Samir Kairouz was my dear friend and more than a brother to me,” he said in his tribute.

Fellow MP Robin Scott, who is now Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Veterans, told parliament on May 26, 2010, that Samir Kairouz “was a migrant who came to Australia and helped establish a business, Cedar Meats, which is one of Australia’s leading meat ­exporters.

“It is a wonderful business that I understand has employed over 10,000 people since the time it was established,” Mr Scott said.

Another Kairouz brother, Cedar Meats director Joseph Kairouz, was photographed in 2015 alongside Scott Morrison, who was then immigration minister, and Liberal senator Concetta ­Fierravanti-Wells, who was then assistant minister for multicultural affairs, as they presented him with an award at an Ethnic Business Awards Foundation event.

Cedar Meats did not respond to a request for comment.