IBAC: Daniel Andrews ‘dismissed concerns over red shirt rorts’

Daniel Andrews has been dragged into an anti-corruption inquiry into branch stacking by former Labor warlord Adem Somyurek.

 

Daniel Andrews has been dragged into an anti-corruption inquiry into branch stacking by former Labor warlord Adem Somyurek, who described the Victorian Premier as a one-time factional operative who, as opposition leader, dismissed his concerns about the “red shirts” rort by asking do you “want to win an election or not?”

Mr Somyurek also alleged at a hearing before the Independent Broadbased anti-Corruption Commission on Monday that Mr Andrews oversaw legislation that failed to outlaw a “gold standard rort” and brokered a factional peace deal to end branch stacking in the early 2000s.

The upper house MP said during the 2014 state election he approached Mr Andrews, then opposition leader, flagging concerns over using electorate office staffers to campaign for the party, which eventually became known as the “red shirts” rort.

Mr Somyurek told IBAC Mr Andrews responded to his concerns with “words to the effect, ‘Well, you’re either going to – you know, if you want to win an election or not,’.”

The ALP repaid $388,000 in taxpayer money after an investigation by the Victorian Ombudsman in 2018 found the party misused parliamentary resources by drafting electorate staff to campaign for the party.

In a dramatic day of evidence, Mr Somyurek alleged several federal Labor figures , including former senator Stephen Conroy and current federal MP Anthony Byrne, were linked to branch stacking. Mr Somyurek said Mr Conroy had set about “building an empire” while Mr Byrne was the boss of a stacking operation.

Mr Somyurek said that during the late 1990s that he and Mr Andrews fought against each other in a fierce factional war in Melbourne’s southeast as he recruited for the moderate Right and the future Victorian premier organised members for the Socialist Left.

“I think the Left invented ethnic branch stacking,” he said.

“I’ve done a lot of research on this but I could talk about what I’ve seen in the southeast and it was the Left and the Right going at it hammer and tongs when I joined the party.”

 

Mr Somyurek said he and Mr Andrews brokered a peace deal around 2002 in a bid to end a toxic factional war they engaged in Melbourne’s southeast when Mr Andrews was elected to the seat of Mulgrave. “There was government largesse, council largesse being used for the factions to win votes over, win key people over that carried a lot of votes,” he said.

“And it was (absolutely) toxic – people would have ended up in (jail) had that culture persisted.”

Mr Somyurek said he and the future premier were in “constant contact about a potential deal -locally in the southeast”.

“We wanted to go into parliament and pursue our career, our parliamentary careers. And that was the genesis of the (2002 faction peace deal to stop branch stacking),” he said. “Mr Andrews and I were starting a new life, new career in parliament.”

Mr Somyurek said because Ombudsman Deborah Glass did not use the word corruption, many in politics saw her report as “carte blanche to do whatever you wanted”. He said legislation introduced in response to the Ombudsman report was narrowed because no one from either side of politics had the appetite to crack down on using electorate office staff for ¬politicking, describing it as a “unity ticket”.

“There would have been a concern that politicians would have been hauled before IBAC for breaching their entitlements,” Mr Somyurek said.

He used Mr Andrews as an example but said it could have equally applied to the opposition, saying there was a widespread belief that electorate office work included some factional duties.

Commissioner Robert Redlich QC said the lack of will to legislate the Ombudsman’s recommendations was a “terrible indictment” on the Victorian parliament.

“Parliament is the first place to ensure that not only members but staff confine their activities to complying with and discharging their public duties,” he said.

Throughout his evidence, Mr Somyurek aired the Labor Party’s dirty laundry as he dropped the names of party big guns including deputy leader Richard Marles, former premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby, Senator Conroy and Victorian frontbencher Lisa Neville.

“Stephen Conroy himself, when he was engaging in … building an empire throughout Victoria and changing the balance of power in Victoria, was employed in a senator’s office when he was doing all of that work,” he said.

“Conroy’s business model was to send people into different areas, induce them with seats if they had branch stacked a lot. In the meantime, what will happen is his empire will grow as these ambitious people branch-stack to get into parliament. Stephen Conroy basically had control of all of the ethnic groupings.

“They got their delegates, and those delegates were then loyal to Stephen Conroy. He built an empire. That was the business model of Stephen Conroy.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment as the inquiry was ongoing. Mr Andrews has previously refused to deny or confirm whether he engaged in factional activity, saying he hadn’t attended a Socialist Left meeting since he became leader.

Mr Somyurek said at the time he was part of the moderate Labor faction overseen by Mr Byrne, while Mr Andrews was part of the Socialist Left faction led by Alan Griffith. Mr Somyurek said Mr Byrne was “the boss” in the southeast, saying he’d paid the member for Holt about $2000 a year for membership renewals, a key component of branch stacking that maintains member numbers.

“Mr Byrne likes to tell people he got me into parliament – he did,” he said. “It was the work of Mr Byrne in stacking branches that got me into parliament.”

The commission heard that when union boss John Setka’s wife Emma Walters came to work in Mr Somyurek’s office in 2019, she conducted a review that found most employees were largely engaging in faction work, which she emailed to her boss in September.