D-DAY ON RORTS FOR VOTES
TWENTY LABOR MPS IMPLICATED IN SCANDAL
AT LEAST 20 Labor MPs are implicated in the rorts-forvotes scandal that has engulfed the Andrews Government in a political crisis.
Victoria’s Ombudsman Deborah Glass will release a bombshell report at 10am today into ALP misuse of taxpayer funds to pay for campaign staff in a controversial scheme that helped Premier Daniel Andrews win the 2014 election.
More than 20 Labor MPs — including some serving Cabinet ministers — are believed to be caught up in the investigation into the election campaign funding rort.
The watchdog’s investigation was sparked by News Corp revelations in September 2015 that hundreds of thousands of dollars were diverted from taxpayers to help bankroll an army of grassroots campaigners dubbed “red shirts”. In other major developments on the eve of the report’s release, News Corp can also reveal: LABOR figures expect the watchdog to name each of the 20-plus MPs, in a move that will intensify pressure on them to repay the money and threatens to undermine the government leading into this year’s election. THE amount each MP charged taxpayers varies widely, with some wrongly charging tens of thousands of dollars in staff wages to parliament. The overall sum rorted is hundreds of thousands of dollars. HUNDREDS of days of red shirts’ campaign work was wrongly charged to the public by the MPs. TIMESHEETS used to facilitate payments were often filled out in advance, and are expected to come under close scrutiny in the report.
Labor insiders say the state’s integrity watchdog is likely to have probed the involvement of Labor’s 2014 campaign committee in approving the funding scheme.
Key members of that committee include Mr Andrews, his right-hand man and Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings, Labor’s then state sec- retary Noah Carroll, Attorney-General Martin Pakula, and senior federal MPs such as Kim Carr and former senator Stephen Conroy.
Yesterday, Deputy Premier James Merlino continued to defend the scheme as a “pooling” of staff, and said the party had acted “within the rules”.
But News Corp revealed yesterday the first casualty of the rorts-for-votes scheme after former state treasurer and key architect of the plan John Lenders resigned from a $90,000-a-year post at rail asset owner VicTrack.
News Corp first revealed the scandal in 2015, when Labor whistleblowers said hundreds of days of campaigning before the 2014 state election, were funded by MPs taxpayer-funded office budgets.
Whistleblowers revealed dozens of ALP staff were hired to pose as electorate officers but they were really directing 5500 campaign volunteers — dubbed the red shirts.
Most were paid at least two days a week by the Victorian Parliament, despite clearly carrying out ALP business.
Shadow Treasurer Michael O’Brien said any MPs found to have been implicated must pay the price. “Everyone knows you cannot use your electorate staff for party political campaigning,’’ Mr O’Brien said.
“When rorting has been found the people who are responsible apologise, pay back the money and lose their jobs, that’s the standard,’’ he said.
He pointed to previous rorts by Andrews Government members: including former Corrections Minister Steve Herbert, who ferried his dogs around in a taxpayer-funded car.
And the former Speaker and Deputy speaker who rorted tens of thousands of dollars from the second home residence allowance.
Mr O’Brien said the same standard of punishment must be applied to MPs implicated in the Ombudsman’s investigation.
Victorian Greens integrity spokesman, Sam Hibbins, said Labor must take responsibility for its actions and respect the Ombudsman’s findings to be released today.
Ms Glass was asked to look at whistleblower claims published by News Corp after former Greens leader Greg Barber put forward a motion in the Legislative Council.
“You have to question why Daniel Andrews committed so much time and public money trying to shut down this investigation,” Mr Hibbins said.
“The stench hanging over parliament must be lifted.”