Labor heavies ready to desert scandal-tainted power house
Labor MPs talked up the Suleymans for decades. They’ve now fallen silent as the family’s powerbase crumbles.
Stephen Conroy was furious.
But before unleashing, he wanted to stress he wasn’t speaking as the minister for broadband communications and the digital economy in the Rudd Labor government.
No, he was on his feet in federal parliament this Wednesday night only as an angry Victorian senator sticking up for a mate.
It was June 23, 2010, the eve of political history. The next day, June 24, Kevin Rudd would be rolled as prime minister by his ALP colleagues, and Julia Gillard sworn in as the nation’s first female PM.
As a Victorian Labor powerbroker the night before this historic event, you’d expect a numbers man to have plenty on his political plate. But in the Victorian ALP, there’s always time to support a factional ally, especially if his name is Hakki Suleyman.
“The principal set of circumstances I refer to centre on Mr Hakki Suleyman, a man who I am proud to have been able to call a friend for many years,” Conroy told parliament.
“The facts are that a now discredited Ombudsman’s report, which has led to not one single charge being laid to date against those adversely named within it, has been used as cover for a relentless, personal hate campaign against Mr Suleyman.
“The Ombudsman’s report into Brimbank City Council is a torrent of vitriol that found no evidence of criminal acts, found no evidence for any charge to be laid, and apparently targeted some individuals above others based on scurrilous allegations from unnamed parties.”
Fourteen years on, Conroy’s intervention stands as a colourful reference point in mapping the intergenerational, and often controversial, story of the Suleyman family’s rise and influence in the Victorian ALP.
In fact, after the dramatic events of last Friday, when Mem Suleyman – Hakki’s son – was stood down as the chief of the Transport Workers Union amid allegations of “harassing behaviour”, Conroy’s 2010 comments are more relevant than ever in charting how the Suleyman family help run a chunk of the ALP.
Supporters say the rise of the Suleymans is a great Labor story of hardworking Turkish Cypriot migrants engaging in the democratic and cultural melting pot of Melbourne.
Mem Suleyman, until last Friday, had risen to the position of state secretary of the TWU. His sister, Natalie Suleyman, is the Minister for Veterans, Small Business and Youth in the Allan state government.
As Natalie Suleyman remarked during her inaugural speech to parliament in 2015: “My parents migrated here from Cyprus in the early 1970s, when they were very young. My father, on a boat called Patris, docked at Port Melbourne, and my mother arrived a year later. Hope was their only possession. They worked hard in factories to make ends meet, so that they could be part of the Australian dream: a home, a car and a future for their children … they were determined to become participants in that democracy and to help inform the decisions that shape our state and our nation.”
Specific details of the allegations against Mem Suleyman have yet to emerge, and the union’s national executive has called in a former judge to investigate them as well as counter claims made by the stood-down state secretary.
Mem Suleyman has not responded to multiple messages from The Weekend Australian since his dramatic exit last Friday. Similarly, Hakki Suleyman has failed to respond to questions and take up the offer to defend his son. Natalie Suleyman also did not return messages.
In her inaugural speech, the new MP did return the favour to Conroy, telling the House: “There are many people who deserve my sincere thanks for supporting me over the course of my journey in public life. I would like particularly to thank Senator Stephen Conroy, who has made a special trip to be here today, for his support.”
While Hakki Suleyman’s daughter may be a minister, the real political power in the family has been handed down to his son as he quickly rose through the ranks of the TWU, a union that functions as both an industrial and political force from its Port Melbourne headquarters in Rouse St.
In recent years, the Suleyman-run TWU has emerged as the most powerful force within the splintered right wing of the Left-controlled Victorian ALP. The fact the family were part of the minority Right never seemed to undercut their influence.
Labor rivals of the Suleymans estimate the family are associated with hundreds of branch members, maybe as many as 400, clustered in the northwest around the state seat of St Albans, Natalie Suleyman’s electorate.
As they say, all politics is local, and these grassroot numbers flow through to the election of delegates at state conferences, membership of the administrative committee and the influential public office selection committee.
The POSC plays the key role in selecting future state and federal MPs. Both Mem and Hakki Suleyman sit on the body. If you want to wield real power in the party, you want to be one of the 100 members.
A widely held view in the Labor caucus and the party more broadly is that the Suleymans “wield disproportionate power”. One example referenced by multiple Labor figures was when Labor MP Kat Theophanous, of Greek Cypriot heritage, was suspended by her faction after speaking in parliament about the historic differences with Turkish Cypriots over Cyprus. The Suleymans were infuriated by the statement and she was subsequently suspended.
Estimates vary as to how many state Labor MPs could be classified as holding an association with this TWU grouping. One veteran Labor operator put the number as high as a dozen.
Variously, the family have supported different elements within the party. One Labor player, who has been both a Suleyman ally and rival, sums it up: “You can rent the Suleymans, but you can’t buy them.” This all goes some way to explaining why the likes of Conroy and the next generation of Labor MPs, including Sam Rae, the member for Hawke, stick close to the family. As Conroy stood by the father in 2010, Rae stands by the son in the 2020s.
Rae, who declares himself to be a “proud” member of the TWU, has lauded Mem Suleyman in parliament, giving a “special shout-out” to his “dear friend” and also “great mate”.
On August 1, 2022, Rae offered: “I especially want to acknowledge and thank my great friend, assistant secretary Mehmet Suleyman. Mem has devoted his life to serving the members of our union, to fighting for their rights and their safety. I would not be here were it not for his friendship, encouragement and strategic nous.”
In a social media post alongside a photo of them arm in arm on the 2022 federal election campaign trail, Rae posted; “Proud as punch to be out at Melton with my amazing mate Mem Suleyman. This bloke fights every day for working people.
“The TWU and the entire union movement have been sensationally supportive of our campaign in Hawke; I’m deeply grateful.”
Rae’s high regard for Mem Suleyman extends to Hakki. As of this week, Hakki Suleyman was working in Rae’s electorate office in Melton on a casual basis. Asked how many days a week he works there, a colleague remarked: “That’s a good question … he was here on Tuesday.” Not that long ago, a grinning Hakki Suleyman was so proud to work for Rae that he was photographed pointing to a “Sam Rae” tote bag.
Over the journey, Hakki Suleyman has worked in multiple state and federal electorate offices, including that of former federal MP Anthony Byrne and former state planning minister Justin Madden. It seems none of these electorate office jobs kept him too busy to meddle in the affairs of the Brimbank council.
The 2009 Ombudsman’s report into the council found Hakki Suleyman had influenced the council at the time Natalie Suleyman was a councillor and mayor.
“My investigation revealed that he (Hakki Suleyman) has played a significant role in council business,” the report finds.
“My investigation identified that Mr Suleyman exerted significant influence in relation to council business … (and) that the operation and governance of Brimbank have been unduly influenced by individuals who hold no elected local government office.”
The Ombudsman’s report details Hakki Suleyman’s criminal convictions, stating that in 1989 he was convicted of intentionally cause injury, found armed with an offensive weapon, and assault with a weapon, resulting in a $5000 fine. Documents released by the Magistrates Court confirm the convictions.
In the wake of the Ombudsman’s report, Hakki Suleyman lost his job in Madden’s electorate office. But even with all of this on the public record, Conroy wasn’t about to abandon him and he savaged the Ombudsman.
“The Ombudsman’s report … is now a laughing stock, save for the fact that it has disrupted people’s lives and left reputations in tatters,” he told parliament in 2010. “Many false claims of misconduct were made against Natalie Suleyman. These accusations proved to be so baseless that no charges were laid. However, attention was then turned to her father, Hakki.
“And what test did the Ombudsman apply to this entire investigation? It was whether a person had exerted ‘undue influence’ upon council proceedings or had ‘acted inappropriately’. Such accusations are impossible to quantify and highly subjective.”
Conroy told parliament there had been a “profound” loss of public trust in the watchdog and “those currently occupying the office of this important integrity watchdog”. “Indeed, my good friend Hakki Suleyman has suffered tremendously at the hands of those carrying out that investigation … Mr Suleyman states that he was belittled and harassed, suffered the implication that his job was in danger and was badgered with the threat of phone taps.”
The minister then turned on a journalist at The Age who had written many of the Brimbank council stories: “Mr Suleyman has been hounded out of his job by a combination of relentless persecution by Ombudsman employees and a journalistic campaign that borders on the xenophobic.”
Conroy, Rae and others in the Victorian ALP have stood alongside the Suleymans through the decades. But something has changed. Curiously – seasoned observers of this backbencher say quite predictably – Rae has failed to publicly back Mem Suleyman since the scandal broke last Friday. Likewise, Conroy failed to respond to messages.
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