Key poll role for ‘red shirts’ mastermind

‘Red shirts’ chief John Lenders ‘crossed the line’ with the rort, but Labor happy to keep him on Dan Andrews’ election campaign team.

John Lenders. Picture: Nicole Garmston

The mastermind of Labor’s “red shirts” rort that looted $388,000 from taxpayers will play a key role in the Andrews government’s 2022 election campaign.

Despite a slew of serious adverse findings by the Victorian Ombudsman, former Labor treasurer John Lenders continues to sit on the party’s election campaign committee that will run Premier Daniel Andrews’ bid for a historic third term on November 26.

Victorian ALP state secretary and campaign director Chris Ford has confirmed Mr Lenders remains on the taskforce, but did not respond to questions about whether this was appropriate, given the renewed focus on the red shirts this week in a report by IBAC and the Ombudsman exposing the systemic abuse of public funds by the ALP.

Opposition upper house leader David Davis has called on the Premier to sack Mr Lenders from the campaign committee as part of cleaning up Labor in the wake of the report. “Anyone who is tainted by association with the crooked red shirts scheme should be stood aside from their positions within the ALP,” he said.

“Victorians can’t have confidence that Labor has cleaned up its act until they are all expunged. Mr Andrews is pulling another trick where he tries to distance himself from the integrity crisis but maintains those who have been the subject of adverse findings to do his work.”

In her 2018 report into the rort, Ombudsman Deborah Glass reserved her strongest criticism for Mr Lenders, concluding the veteran Labor MP had “crossed the line” in recruiting 21 Labor MPs into the scheme that saw public funds earmarked to pay for ­electorate officers diverted to bankroll the party’s red shirt election campaigners.

Ms Glass found Mr Lenders carried “the greatest share of culpability” in the red shirts rort and as “a senior member of parliament, former minister and treasurer, and leader of the government in the Legislative Council, he should have known better”.

“He sought advice from DPS (the Department of Parliamentary Services) but did not take it, yet his involvement and personal stature would have been instrumental in giving credibility to the scheme,” she found.

“There is undoubtedly a blurred line between permissible and impermissible uses of parliamentary funds … In seeking to maximise the use of resources available to the party for the 2014 campaign, Mr Lenders crossed this line.”

Mr Lenders, who according to leaked campaign committee meeting minutes has attended multiple meetings of the taskforce in recent years, did not return text and phone messages on Thursday. Approached by The Australian, he declined to comment.

The Andrews government also declined to comment. “It is a matter for the party,” a spokesperson said.

While Mr Ford this week did not offer a public defence to the ongoing role on the election committee, in February he explicitly supported the former Labor MP: “I don’t think there is anything inappropriate … about his involvement. He was cleared in a police investigation. I’m not uncomfortable with John still having a role.”

After the ombudsman’s report in 2018, Mr Andrews apologised for the scheme and the Victorian ALP repaid $388,000.

The Premier made the following comment about Mr Lenders at the time: “I think Mr Lenders has indicated in his testimony, in his submissions to the Ombudsman, that with the benefit of hindsight he would have done things differently.”

The Australian understands a fresh ombudsman’s report into the red shirts rort will shortly be released, with a brief conversation between Mr Andrews and dumped former Labor minister Adem Somyurek in 2014 expected to be a focus.

Mr Somyurek has claimed during that exchange that he flagged concerns with Mr Andrews about the red shirts funding model, but the then opposition leader dismissed his warning saying “Do you want to win an election or not?”. Mr Andrews has denied saying this.