WA Labor slapped over use of electorate officers for campaigning

The CCC found it appeared a majority of MPs were using their taxpayer-funded officers for campaigning.

West Australian Labor Premier Roger Cook. Picture: David Beach/NewsWire

The West Australian Labor Party has copped a rebuke from the state’s corruption watchdog over behind-the-scenes conduct reminiscent of Victorian Labor’s infamous “red shirts” saga.

The Corruption and Crime Commission on Monday morning released a report identifying “significant misconduct risks’ in the way Labor MPs managed their electorate officers.

Each WA MP is entitled to two full-time taxpayer-funded electorate officers, but they are prohibited from working on campaigning during their working hours.

The CCC’s investigations found examples of Labor MP electorate officers who were campaigning during business hours, concluding it was reasonable “to assume that the majority of electorate officers undertake party-political work or active campaigning for their MP”.

WA Labor, the CCC said, “regularly offers electorate officers a range of training sessions largely devoted to effective campaigning”.

“They are strongly encouraged to attend,” the CCC said.

The watchdog noted, however, that those electorate officers maintained that they made up that time spent campaigning during office hours by performing their regular duties outside standard hours.

Corruption bodies in Victoria have repeatedly investigated the Labor Party there over similar allegations. But, just as was the case in Victoria, the CCC found there was no time-recording procedure implemented in any of the electorate offices to substantiate if and when that additional work was done.

“The lack of time recording made it impossible for the commission to identify what was and was not being done on the public purse,” the CCC said.

“There is no evidence to contradict the explanation given by the witnesses that they made up for time spent campaigning by performing their public duties outside office hours.”

It recommended the introduction of better time-recording systems for electorate officers and clearer guidance around party-political work.

WA Premier Roger Cook said Labor had changed its practices since the 2021 state election to ensure that campaign training for electorate officers no longer took place during normal office hours.

“But what it draws our attention to is the importance to make sure MPs continue to act with integrity, and that goes for their staff as well,” he said.

The CCC report also noted that it had found no evidence to support allegations that Mr Cook had instructed his electorate officer of the time to fast-track applications from Labor Business Roundtable members trying to enter the state under the tight Covid border restrictions.