Daniel Andrews expects branch stacking complaints to be ‘taken seriously’
Daniel Andrews continued to describe his close factional ally Lily D’Ambrosio as an ‘outstanding minister’, despite allegations her branch renewed the memberships of dead people.
Daniel Andrews says complaints made by family members of men whose signatures were forged after their deaths by a Labor Party branch associated with senior Victorian minister Lily D’Ambrosio will be a matter for an “independent, robust” Labor Party process that will be “taken seriously”.
Responding to revelations in Thursday’s The Australian that the families of Antonio Donato and Celestino Nigro intended to complain to Labor Party Monitor John Thwaites, the Victorian Premier distanced himself from what he described as a “party matter” before using question time to praise Ms D’Ambrosio as an “outstanding minister”.
His comments come after The Australian on Tuesday revealed that the Lalor South branch of the Labor Party, which has been the source of Ms D’Ambrosio’s internal power for more than 20 years, had renewed Mr Donato and Mr Nigro’s party memberships in 2018 and 2019, despite their deaths in 2017.
Membership renewals require fees to be paid and membership forms to be signed, meaning someone paid money on their behalf and forged their signatures.
The Australian has also confirmed that at least nine people who were registered as Lalor South branch members in 2019 have no recollection of having paid membership fees, in some cases over the course of more than a decade of membership.
The branch held its meetings in Ms D’Ambrosio’s office until at least 2019, with 100 per cent of memberships paid via cash.
Less than 10 per cent – or 13 of 132 – members signed up to the branch in 2019 continued to be registered following a membership audit conducted by party elders Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin.
Asked on Thursday whether he would welcome Mr Thwaites investigating allegations of branch stacking in D’Ambrosio-linked branch, Mr Andrews said “complaints and independent processes” were “a matter for the party”.
“That’s a matter for an independent, robust process, and one that is taken seriously,” the Premier said.
Asked whether he would require all his MPs to co-operate with any inquiry, he said: “I would expect that all of our team and every member of the Labor Party, whether you’re in the parliament or not, follows the rules of the party, and these processes are laid out as part of the rules.”
In response to questions from Opposition Leader John Pesutto in question time, Mr Andrews defended his close factional ally.
“The Minister for Energy, Climate Action and the SEC is an outstanding minister, and if you made one-hundredth of her contribution to this place, you’d be doing well,” the Premier said of Ms D’Ambrosio.
Mr Andrews denied there was “any comparison” between the allegations concerning Ms D’Ambrosio’s branch and those that cost Adem Somyurek and three of his ministerial colleagues their jobs after the Bracks-Macklin audit in the wake of the 2020 branch stacking scandal.
“If the Leader of the Opposition wants to draw comparisons between what we all sat and watched on the 60 Minutes program, and what has been reported this week, I don’t think there is any comparison,” he said.
Asked whether he would refer Ms D’Ambrosio to IBAC, Mr Andrews said the corruption watchdog had powers to investigate without a referral.
Mr Pesutto said Mr Andrews had “one rule for his mates, and one rule for his foes.”
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