Watchdog finds Premier ‘immersed’ in ‘red shirts’

Ombudsman says Daniel Andrews was involved in the ‘red shirts’ scheme but finds no evidence he was aware of the $388,000 rort that funded Labor’s army.

John Lenders and Daniel Andrews.

Victoria’s ombudsman has concluded Daniel Andrews was “involved and immersed” in the “red shirts” election campaign, but found no evidence he was aware of the $388,000 rort that funded Labor’s army.

In a new report into the political scandal tabled in parliament on Thursday, the integrity watchdog has again found responsibility for the taxpayer-funded rip-off rests with the premier’s right-hand man during the 2014 election, former Labor treasurer John Lenders.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass states the rort was the “brainchild” of the ALP veteran, who this week quit the premier’s re-election committee amid renewed controversy over “red shirts”.

“The evidence showed that Mr Andrews was involved and immersed in the Red Shirts campaign in 2014, as he necessarily would have been as party leader,” she states in the report.

“However, there was no evidence he was aware of what I described in my (2018) report as the artifice: the manner in which Mr Lenders had proposed field organisers would divide their activities and be paid in a split fashion by both the ALP and Parliament.

“Mr Lenders’ evidence (in the 2018 report) was that it was his brainchild, and that he and his electorate officer propagated and facilitated the scheme to participating MPs.”

In Thursday’s 31-page report, Ms Glass says given the evidence about Mr Lenders, which she says was confirmed by other MPs, she had “no reason” to question Mr Andrews about his knowledge of the scheme or rort.

But today’s report does reveal that in 2017, in the midst of her initial “red shirts” investigation, the ombudsman did seek evidence from the Premier about staffing arrangements within Labor, and he refused to give evidence, claiming her office had no authority over him.

“He (Mr Andrews) declined to give evidence … and referred me to Mr Lenders,” she states. “I had no reason to seek to compel him (Mr Andrews).”

The Ombudsman’s fresh investigation into the “red shirts” was triggered by a referral from the Legislative Council after dumped Labor minister Adem Somyurek claimed in parliament that Mr Andrews, as opposition leader in 2014, was aware of the rort.

In today’s report, Ms Glass reiterates her 2018 findings that the rort was “wrong” but fell short of criminal or corrupt conduct, and described Mr Somyurek’s claims as “unsupported”.

“There is no persuasive evidence the Premier designed, propagated or facilitated the scheme,” she states in her foreword.

“Is there anything else to investigate? The short answer is no.”

Later in the report, Ms Glass concludes “we cannot, or course, rule out that evidence may yet come to light … but given these events took place over eight years ago and the difficulty in proving awareness of the ‘artifice’ surrounding the scheme, I would question the expenditure of public funds in pursuing this issue further.”

Ms Glass was also highly critical of a decision by Victoria Police to conduct dawn raids and arrest 17 of the “red shirts” campaigners, concluding it was a “mistake” that raised public debate when Labor MPs were not also arrested.

“It is not clear why MPs were not treated in the same, allegedly heavy-handed, fashion as their staffers,” she found.