Red Shirt paper trail not enough to charge MPs

Snubbing the Red Shirts police investigation helped Labor MPs beat possible criminal charges.

The refusal by Victorian Labor MPs to co-operate with police ­delivered a major blow to the ­investigation into the $388,000 “red shirts” rort.

The Victoria Police probe had seized a trove of documents – most importantly timesheets that provided a paper trail linking Labor MPs to the payment of the red shirt campaigners – but sources familiar with the 2018 investigation said a lack of supporting witnesses was a critical missing link.

The Labor MPs’ silence, the ­refusal by red shirt campaigners to co-operate with police after their arrest and a lack of specific details in a whistleblower’s statement combined to weaken the police case.

“The cops had a whole lot of pieces of paper, but they had no witnesses. And the pieces of paper needed some witnesses to get them over the line,” one source said.

The decision by Labor MPs to stick together and follow legal ­advice to exercise their right not to comment proved to be a successful legal tactic, but it does undermine Labor’s public position that they did co-operate with authorities.

It also followed repeated legal stalling tactics by Labor’s lower house members to delay the ­Ombudsman’s investigation and their refusal to co-operate with the integrity watchdog’s probe.

Victoria Police launched an investigation into the red shirts rort after the Ombudsman’s ­report found that more than 20 Labor MPs were involved in a scheme to divert taxpayer-funded electorate office funds to pay for ALP campaign staff in the 2014 election.

Premier Daniel Andrews later apologised for the rort, and the Victorian ALP refunded $388,000 to the public purse.

Amid fresh claims that senior police officers hobbled the investigation by refusing to allow ­detectives to arrest Labor MPs, a source said the investigators were thorough, motivated and doing a professional job.

“The cops were hot to trot. They were diligent and committed. They weren’t rolling the arm over. They were working hard. But if no one will talk to you, you’re f..ked,” a source said.

Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said on Friday that questions over the investigation “would be best put to the police”.

Asked whether she was concerned that preferential treatment may have been given to a certain class of Victorian, namely Labor MPs, Ms Symes reiterated: “I think the operational decisions of police, how they conduct investigations, and how they instruct their people within the police forces are matters for Victoria police.”

Pressed on whether there was a double standard, given Labor staffers were subjected to dawn raids on their homes and strip searches, but MPs were not, Ms Symes said: “Look again, I cannot put myself in the position of Victoria Police in the decisions that they make in conducting their ­investigations, or indeed who they choose to speak to and how they choose to do that.”

Several current Andrews government MPs and ministers participated in the rort, including Minister for Tourism and Major Events Martin Pakula, the former attorney-general, who diverted $5356 of public funds to the scheme. Former treasurer John Lenders – criticised by the ­Ombudsman as being the architect of the scheme – diverted $44,000 to pay for the red shirts.