Victorian ALP warlords’ deal on candidate

Melbourne’s factional warlords installed a candidate in Victorian parliament in exchange for a boost in members, IBAC has heard.

Former Victorian Labor candidate Jasvinder Sidhu with Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Facebook

Melbourne’s factional warlords installed a candidate in Victorian parliament in exchange for a boost in members while in another incident it is alleged a political hopeful handed over $5000 after being led to believe he would be granted preselection for a federal seat.

Allegations of power being negotiated and manipulated within parts of the Victorian ALP were aired at the first hearing of a joint investigation between the state anti-corruption watchdog and the state ombudsman on Monday.

Federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne told the hearing that in one example, then Victorian MP Adem Somyurek cut a deal with wealthy businessmen brothers Aloke and Akash Kumar from the community group Subcontinent Friends of Labor.

He said in exchange for shifting their numbers to Mr Somyurek’s faction, they wanted their candidate to be granted preselection, leading to the election of Kaushaliya Vaghela to the upper house representing the Western Metro region. “My understanding would be if they crossed factions …. The undertaking that would have been given is Kaushaliya would have been nominated to the upper house on behalf of the Labor Party,” he said.

In her inaugural speech to parliament following her election in 2018, Ms Vaghela paid tribute to Subcontinent Friends of Labor, explaining how her role as an advocate for that organisation led to her joining the Labor Party.

Mr Byrne told the hearing that the community group brought a huge number of members to the faction and he didn’t believe they were paying for their own memberships. “There were so many people turning up they just could not possibly be paying for their own memberships,” he said.

Mr Byrne said he and Mr Somyurek met with the two brothers in Berwick in Melbourne’s far southeast, where he said they intimated they wanted another candidate in return for their continued support.

“In his (Mr Somyurek’s) defence, I think he felt they were asking for a lot, particularly I think they were mentioning a federal MP,” he said. “It was clear that they had more demands that they expected Mr Somyurek to meet.”

Mr Byrne said the two brothers made him deeply uncomfortable and the partnership was not going to end well.

The Somyurek faction is not the only Labor grouping to be accused of recruiting from the South Asian community in an effort to stack branches. Jasvinder Sidhu, then assistant secretary of the party’s Tarneit branch, was last year banned from running for office for seven years after an internal party investi­gation found he had contributed to ethnic tensions for political ­advantage and engaged in branch stacking.

The member of Daniel Andrews’s Socialist Left faction was recorded telling a group of Indian Australians that Lebanese Muslims were sponging off taxpayers, with Mr Sidhu was punched in the face at an ALP branch meeting at his own house.

In another allegation aired at the hearing by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission on Monday, Mr Byrne said political hopefuls were expected to pay for the memberships of others.

He alleged Steve Michelson was approached and asked for money before the aspirant paid $5000 with hopes it would help him gain preselection for the federal seat held by Mark Dreyfus.

“I think he was led to understand he would have been favourably looked upon,” he said.

Mr Michelson refuted Mr Byrne’s testimony and said he had never paid for anyone’s membership other than his own or par­ticipated in branch stacking. “Whilst I have made many donations to the party and to individual campaigns, I have always understood those donations to be for standard and legitimate campaign costs,” he said.

“Mr Byrne’s evidence was a report of a conversation he had with Adem Somyurek. It is mere hearsay, and should be treated as such.

“I condemn in the strongest terms anyone who has systemically breached the party’s rules or ­engaged in corrupt conduct.”

In response to Mr Byrne’s testimony, Mr Somyurek said: “He is implementing a media strategy. I challenge him to say these things whilst not under privilege.”

Neither Ms Vaghela nor Subcontinent Friends of Labor responded to a request for comment.