Daniel Andrews targeted on Victorian Labor ‘red shirts’ rort

Adem Somyurek wants the Ombudsman and IBAC to investigate Daniel Andrews’s role in ‘designing, propagating and facilitating’ Victorian Labor’s red shirts rort.

Former Labor MP Adem Somyurek arrives at state parliament on Tuesday. Picture: Ian Currie

Daniel Andrews’s role in “designing, propagating and facilitating” Victorian Labor’s “red shirts” rort would be referred to the Ombudsman and corruption watchdog IBAC under a motion to be ­debated in parliament on Wednesday.

Declaring that he and every other MP who participated in the 2014 scheme was “corrupt”, disgraced former Labor MP Adem Somyurek gave notice of the ­motion when parliament ­resumed on Tuesday following the summer break.

The opposition – which holds 11 of 40 upper house seats – has ­indicated it will support the ­motion, meaning Mr Somyurek requires eight of a possible 11 crossbench votes in addition to his own to secure a majority.

So far only the Greens and Animal Justice Party have ruled out voting for the motion, with Reason Party MP Fiona Patten saying on Tuesday she had yet to decide.

Mr Somyurek and his factional allies are being investigated by the Ombudsman and IBAC over allegations of misuse of electorate officers and branch ­stacking.

His motion notes that inquiry, know as Operation Watts, which was established after both houses of parliament referred the matter to the watchdogs, at the Premier’s instigation. It then seeks to ­expand the scope of Operation Watts to encompass other topics including “the red shirts scheme … (and) the role of the then opposition leader, the Hon Daniel ­Andrews MP, in designing, propagating and facilitating the scheme”.

Mr Somyurek also wants ­Operation Watts to look into “all electorate officers and ministerial advisers performing factional tasks during work hours from all factions of the Australian Labor Party”, and “the extent of branch-stacking activities and funding of branch-stacking activities, in particular whether government funds have been misdirected to pay for memberships from electorate office budgets, including but not limited to, through ­arrangements for the provision of printing, office supplies or other services”. He also wants an investigation into claims the government “stacked” the public service with Labor ­activists.

“It is a good opportunity, now that IBAC is interested in these matters, to have a look at the biggest political scandal in Victoria’s history and that is the red shirts scandal,” he said. “Let’s be frank, I’m on the line here. I contributed to the red shirt scandal.

“So if it’s good enough for me to put myself on the line, I think it should be good enough for everyone else to vote (in favour).”

In 2018 the ALP was forced to repay almost $400,000 of taxpayer funds it used to pay party political “red shirt” campaigners ahead of the 2014 state election. Ombudsman Deborah Glass concluded the arrangement was an “artifice” and was “wrong”, but did not recommend charges.