Daniel Andrews resists dumping Cesar Melhem as pressure rises

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is resisting pressure to dump Labor powerbroker Cesar Melhem from the upper house of state parliament.

The Victorian Premier, Daniel And­rews,­ is resisting mounting pressure to dump Labor powerbroker Cesar Melhem from his safe seat in the upper house of state parliament, insisting the royal commission into unions should be allowed to run its course before any action is taken against the former Australian Workers Union boss.

Mr Andrews said yesterday he had not spoken to Mr Melhem since the commission’s counsel assistin­g’s submissions that Mr Melhem might face criminal charges were released on Friday night.

Mr Melhem succeeded Bill Shorten as state secretary of the AWU before being rewarded with an upper-house position in May 2013 to replace Attorney-General Martin Pakula, who moved to contest­ a lower-house seat.

Mr Melhem is an influential figure in Labor’s right-wing faction and was government whip before being forced to step aside in June after his appearance before the royal commission.

The commission heard that the union under Mr Melhem’s leadership gave away entitlements for cleaners in return for $75,000 and signed up phantom members by charging fees of more than $225,000 disguised as payments for safety training.

Counsel assisting the commission, Jeremy Stoljar SC, advised that Mr Melhem might have committed offences under the Crimes Act by soliciting “corrupt commissions’’ from the company Clean­event and over the creation of false invoices relating to payments made to the union.

Mr Andrews said he would not be providing a commentary on the commission while it was ongoing: “When the process has come to an end, we’ll be able to talk about all the findings it makes: not ­interim findings, not commentary … we’ll be able to deal with the facts.”