Daniel Andrews faces motion to stand aside amid IBAC probe

A motion has been introduced to the Victorian parliament calling on Daniel Andrews to step aside.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

A motion has been introduced to the Victorian parliament calling on Premier Daniel Andrews to step aside after The Australian revealed last week that Mr Andrews had been secretly grilled in a second anti-corruption probe.

The motion has called for the leader to stand down until an IBAC report is finalised and has requested that the Premier forgo all official responsibilities until the IBAC report into Operation Sandon – an investigation into corruption at a Melbourne council – has been tabled in Parliament, reports The Herald Sun.

Leader of the opposition in the upper house, David Davis, who introduced the motion, claimed the government was trying to shut down questions on the matter and asked, “What do they have to hide?”

“Labor don’t seem to understand that somebody in a senior ministerial position under investigation or dragged to secret hearings at the corruption commission must, until cleared, have a cloud over them,” Minister Davis said.

“The Premier won’t come clean on the details of his corruption commission visit and in those circumstances, the community can only conclude that he should stand aside until the matter is tabled in parliament.”

The motion will be debated and voted on in the Victorian parliament on Wednesday.

Mr Andrews has now been grilled twice by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission in private integrity hearings.

The Premier appeared in the confidential hearing held as part of Operation Sandon, IBAC’s marathon two-year inquiry into an alleged cash-for-access scandal involving a property developer, Casey councillors and Labor MPs.