Labor caught out again using taxpayer resources for politics

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Getty Images

Daniel Andrews’ media team says “all governments around Australia – federal and state, Labor and Liberal – seek community feedback to gauge how best to deliver services” and

use public funds to pay for the research. They’re right.

But the spin machine is wrong to apply this response to all research conducted by the Premier’s political strategist John Armitage and his firm QDOS.

The government’s procurement document states the $1m+ deal handed to Armitage without competitive tender in December 2019 was to “understand and track public perceptions of government services”. Fair enough.

But as one public servant, who has worked at a senior level in both Liberal and Labor governments, asked: Where does Armitage’s research sit on the continuum of relevant public administration and party political intelligence?

The Australian used FoI laws to access 2019-20 correspondence between QDOS and the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Premier’s private office.

Sixty four documents were deemed within scope. Fifty seven documents, including many emails, running to more than 200 pages were released, and the newspaper has published a series of stories highlighting the political nature of some of the QDOS research.

Sweeping redactions to many documents and emails and the blanket ban on releasing seven documents has kept the full extent of how much QDOS research was party political from taxpayers.

Premier Daniel Andrews’ political strategist John Armitage. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

The documents show that throughout last year’s second wave and lockdown, QDOS monitored Victorians’ reaction to restrictions and were asked to score the government’s performance – including its leadership – out of 10.

Today’s report also establishes that in late August, deep in the 112-day lockdown, Armitage addressed the Premier’s eight-member crisis cabinet.

Labor sources say the content of the briefing wasn’t about public health, it was about the public’s perception of how the Premier was handling the pandemic.

More broadly, Labor sources have said that Armitage’s research helped guide the premier’s strategy in appearing at daily press conferences, his tone and language.

The more we learn about the government’s QDOS operation, the more it seems to resemble a research version of the Red Shirts scandal, the misuse of electorate office staff to campaign for Labor in the 2014 election.

When this story broke a number of years ago, the Andrews Government first denied there was anything to see. But Ombudsman Deborah Glass pressed on through a storm of legal challenges and caught the government red handed. The ALP was forced to repay $400,000 in public funds.