Matthew Guy referred to IBAC, as Daniel Andrews faces grilling
As Matthew Guy faced a referral to IBAC over a donations scandal involving his chief of staff, Daniel Andrews was grilled on ‘preference whisperer’ Glenn Druery.
Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy maintains he has done “nothing wrong”, despite the state’s electoral commission referring him to the anti-corruption watchdog, in a blow to the Coalition’s election campaign nine days out from the November 26 poll.
The move comes as the Andrews government is the subject of at least four active investigations by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission, and as Daniel Andrews faced questions over claims by “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery that he was working to deliver Labor a favourable upper house crossbench.
The VEC’s referral of Mr Guy to IBAC relates to allegations that his former chief of staff Mitch Catlin proposed a donor make a $100,000 payment to Catlin’s marketing company for “supporting business interests” — in what Catlin described as an “agreement” in an email he sent to Mr Guy’s private account.
Electoral Commissioner Warwick Gately said his agency had “exhausted” attempts to fully investigate the conduct.
“Despite public statements to the contrary, the VEC has not received full co-operation from those connected to its investigation,” Mr Gately said.
On the campaign trail in Morwell, Mr Guy maintained he had fully co-operated with the VEC’s investigation. Pressed over whether he was accusing the commission of lying, Mr Guy said: “You can make all the assessments you like, but I provided everything that was (asked of) me weeks ago.”
Meanwhile, Mr Andrews made his second visit in just over a week to the Greens target seat of Northcote.
The Premier faced more than half an hour of questioning over his government’s failure to reform Victoria’s upper house voting system, which in 2018 saw MPs elected with primary votes as low as 0.6 per cent.
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