Somyurek wildcard puts pandemic bill in jeopardy

The Andrews government’s pandemic management Bill is in disarray with former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek revealing he will return to parliament to block it.

Adem Somyurek’s possible return to parliament puts the government at risk of having its bill torpedoed. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Geraghty

The Andrews government’s controversial pandemic management Bill is in disarray with former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek revealing he will return to parliament to block it.

Mr Somyurek was un­expectedly cleared to return to parliament on Wednesday ahead of an upper house vote on the legislation this week but the government is now scrambling to delay the vote.

His return to Parliament puts the government at risk of having its bill torpedoed, days after it struck a deal with Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten and Greens leader Samantha Ratnam to pass the legislation with seven amendments.

Mr Somyurek told the Herald Sun he would oppose the Bill, saying it gives “too much power to the government” and could lead to a “tyranny of rule by decree”.

Victoria was already “essentially an elective dictatorship”, he added, saying the bill does not include adequate checks to prevent abuses of power.

Mr Somyurek said he had been moved to return due to concerns there was inadequate independent scrutiny built into the controversial Bill and it could lead to unjust government and “despots”.

“Had I continued to be a member of the Andrews cabinet, I would have argued around the cabinet table that this bill is a bad idea because it gives too much power to the government,” he said.

Mr Somyurek has abstained from voting since he was expelled from the ALP amid branch­stacking allegations last year, and was in October suspended from the upper house because he had failed to provide his proof of vaccination. On Wednesday, Clerk of the Parliaments Andrew Young emailed MPs to notify that Mr Somyurek “has complied with the order (to provide proof of ­vaccination) and is no longer ­suspended.”

With Mr Somyurek’s abstention, the pandemic bill was expected to pass the upper house 19 votes to 18, with the support of three of the 12 crossbenchers.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

With Mr Somyurek voting against the bill, the vote would tie 19-19 and be defeated.

While there are 40 members of the upper house, Labor MP Mark Gepp is on sick leave battling a stomach tumour, and has been granted a pair, effectively reducing the number of members to 38, including 16 Labor MPs and 10 from the Coalition.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes was contacting crossbench MPs who have thus far opposed the bill late into Wednesday night.

It is understood the government will now seek to delay the vote on what it has until now described as an “urgent” bill, and instead seek leave to debate windfall tax legislation which is also currently before the upper house.

The bill had previously been expected to pass late on Thursday. All eight of the crossbenchers who have opposed the bill have previously expressed anger at the government for sidelining them from the drafting of the bill, with government efforts exclusively focused on Mr Meddick, Ms Patten and Dr Ratnam.

Mr Somyurek’s move to return to parliament comes after he last week described Daniel Andrews to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission as a one-time factional operative who, as opposition leader, dismissed his concerns about the “Red Shirts” rort by asking “Do you want to win an election or not?”

Mr Andrews, meanwhile, responded to criticism of the bill from legal voices including the Ombudsman, Law Institute and Victorian Bar by saying his government “doesn’t have the luxury to consult and consult and consult in order to achieve universal ­support”.

Challenged over whether he was comfortable with a law that allows his government to detain people without charge, indefinitely, without them having the right of appeal to a court, Mr Andrews said: “Let’s be very clear: there’s a context. There’s an absolute context in relation to this, and I think there are safeguards.

“There are checks and balances that are far in excess of what exists at the moment.

“Like, in order for a criticism to have some greater strength, I think you‘d need to point to some examples where people abused such a power, where something had moved from being conceptual, or a potential, a possibility however faint, into actual practice, and I’m pleased to say people cannot point to that kind of arbitrary conduct,” he said.

The only safeguard available to someone detained under the new legislation is the ability to appeal to a bureaucrat within the Health Department – an arrangement deemed “insufficient” by a range of legal experts.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy condemned protesters who have threatened violence against Mr Andrews in recent days, but also accused Labor and crossbench MPs of a double standard when it comes to activists from their side of politics.

“Some of the images we’ve seen in the steps of parliament, I for the second day will say I absolutely condemn those … I can’t be any more clear,” Mr Guy said.

He suggested the questions being asked of the Coalition regarding MPs’ associations with protesters should have been asked of Mr Meddick, in light of farm invasions enacted by members of his party, and the Greens, when federal leader Adam Bandt attended a 2014 rally at which students burnt effigies of then education minister Christopher Pyne.