IBAC hearings: Branch stacker MP Anthony Byrne’s positions ‘untenable’

Labor MP Anthony Byrne’s future is under a cloud following his admissions of branch stacking and employing ghost taxpayer-funded staffers.

Labor MP Anthony Byrne. Picture: AAP

Labor MP Anthony Byrne’s future as a federal parliamentarian and deputy chair of the nation’s intelligence and security committee are under a cloud following his admissions of branch stacking and employing ghost taxpayer-funded staffers.

Federal Labor members told The Australian they believed Mr Byrne’s position in the party was “untenable” after he admitted to breaking party rules, with some arguing Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese should banish the veteran MP to the crossbench until the election.

Senior government sources said Mr Byrne should be stood down from his powerful role on the Parliamentary Joint Intelligence and Security Committee, which requires the trust of Australia’s intelligence community.

“He has to go. He doesn’t have a choice,” a senior Liberal said of his committee role.

“He has got no authority left. He has been honourable in owning up to this stuff but he needs to apply the same logic to the committee.

If he wants to preserve the institution, he needs to step away from it. Consistency in public life is important.”

Mr Byrne’s future as an MP is a live question for the Labor Party, with some of his colleagues arguing Mr Albanese had erred by not taking action against the Victorian MP when he was quick to move against Victorian MP Adem Somyurek for branch stacking.

Some Labor MPs argued the party’s failure to deal earlier with Mr Byrne would dent its attacks on the integrity of the Morrison government, including its focus on the Christian Porter scandal and the absence of a national anti-corruption commission.

“I don’t know how it is sustainable for him to stay,” one MP said.

His ongoing tenure in his trusted national security role is also problematic, according to some federal Labor MPs.

“What if you were from one of the agencies? You couldn’t even call his office to set up a meeting. You wouldn’t know if you were being bugged,” one said.

Mr Byrne has told Victoria’s Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission that he engaged in branch stacking and hiring taxpayer-funded staff who never turned up to work because they were engaged in Labor political work.

But Mr Albanese said on Tuesday it was too soon to say whether Mr Byrne should stand down from parliament, or the PJCIS “We will allow the IBAC processes to take their course,” the Opposition Leader said.

“It’s not appropriate to pre-empt their findings and those processes. That’s a very clear thing, when you have a legal matters taking place.”

Liberal members of the PJCIS have until now been happy to let Mr Byrne continue in his role because he was considered more hardline on national security, and therefore more trustworthy, than his Labor colleagues.

“He’s been a very constructive, very collaborative, very bipartisan person who’s very much driven by the national interest and has helped the committee work in a very diligent and bipartisan way to uphold our national security interests,” committee chairman James Paterson told Sky News.

But Will Stoltz, from the Australian National University’s National Security College, said Mr Byrne’s admissions to Victoria’s IBAC would make it challenging for him to continue in his PJCIS role. “The agency heads need to have the utmost trust in all members of the PJCIS,” Dr Stoltz said.

The cloud over Mr Byrne’s membership comes at a difficult time for the committee, which is short one government member following the promotion of Liberal Tim Wilson to the ministry.