Victorian lockdown delayed sacking of staff ‘bully’

Daniel Andrews’s office did not sack a staff member accused of bullying rebel MP Kaushaliya Vaghela until six months after she lodged a formal complaint and she was suspended.

Labor MP Kaushaliya Vaghela. Picture: David Caird

A Daniel Andrews staffer accused of bullying rebel Labor MP Kaushaliya Vaghela was not dismissed from the Victorian Premier’s office until six months after she made a formal complaint and he was suspended.

The sacking came 2½ years after Ms Vaghela says she first approached the Premier’s office over bullying allegations linked to the staff member and other members of his Socialist Left ­faction who, like her, are part of Melbourne’s Indian community.

She took out an intervention order in 2019 against Indian community and Socialist Left member Zeeshan Raza.

This week, Ms Vaghela has accused Mr Andrews of being a “bully” and “misogynist” in light of his factional and employment relationships with Mr Raza and the staff member, whom the Premier’s office has refused to name.

Multiple Labor sources confirmed to The Australian on Monday that the day after Ms Vaghela’s formal complaint to the Premier’s office about his staff member in May 2021, the man was suspended from duties, which included “stakeholder engagement” with the Indian community, but it was not until November that he was sacked — a delay the Premier’s office is ­attributing to Melbourne’s lockdowns.

After crossing the floor last week to vote in favour of her former factional ally Adem Somyurek’s motion for an investi­gation into Mr Andrews’s alleged role in Labor’s red shirts rort, Ms Vaghela on Monday issued a statement condemning ALP plans to have her expelled “for supporting a motion that aims at weeding out corruption in all sections of the Labor Party”.

“I supported this motion because I believe the issues raised in the motion exposed the Labor Party to major future risk of ­corruption,” Ms Vaghela said.

“I therefore believe I was the only Labor Party member acting in the Labor Party’s interest.

“If this is the Labor Party’s response to fighting corruption and going public with a systematic bullying complaint, it is not a party I wish to belong to.”

Senior Andrews government minister Martin Pakula said Ms Vaghela’s allegations about the Premier did not “in any way” resemble his experience.