RORTS & TOSSERS
Local ALP MPs pay cash back to public amid calls to quit
GEELONG-BASED state Labor ministers John Eren, Lisa Neville and Gayle Tierney have rejected calls for them to be relegated to the backbench after yesterday’s release of a damning Ombudsman report revealing rorting ahead of the 2014 state election.
THREE Geelong-based ministers in the Andrews Government are facing calls to step down from the frontbench after the release of a report into claims of rorting ahead of the 2014 state election.
It comes amid a revelation taxpayers’ money was used to pay a staff member at John Eren’s Corio office, while the worker was busy campaigning in the electorate of Lisa Neville whose office is in Leopold — more than 20km away.
The Victorian Ombudsman’s report on the so-called rorts-for-votes scheme found up to $388,000 of public money was siphoned to help Labor win the election.
The arrangement involved more than 20 Labor MPs signing timesheets for electorate officers, who were then used to campaign for party candidates in other electorates.
Among those implicated in the scheme are local MPs Gayle Tierney, Mr Eren and Ms Neville, who have rejected Opposition calls for them to be relegated to the backbench.
The trio have cited Ombudsman Deborah Glass’s finding that the MPs and electorate officers involved in the arrangement believed they were acting within parliamentary guidelines.
The damning findings in the report included news $20,559 was paid to a worker in Ms Tierney’s Geelong office, despite that employee spending their efforts to campaign for Labor’s unsuccessful candidate for South Barwon, Andy Richards.
Mr Eren, the Lara MP, was found to have paid an electorate officer $2358 who was instead campaigning for Ms Neville in the seat of Bellarine.
Mr Eren said he had no intention of quitting the ministry, arguing he — like other MPs — “genuinely” thought he was not breaching the guidelines.
“That’s a ridiculous proposition (to stand down). The Ombudsman did not indicate any further action on this was necessary,” he said.
“There was an existing parliamentary process that allowed members of parliament to dedicate some money to a dedicated pool.
“Clearly the ... members who have contributed to this pool did it in good faith, and that’s her (Ms Glass’) words.”
It was Mr Eren’s electorate officer, Jake Finnigan, who blew the whistle on the scandal in 2015, leading to the Ombudsman’s investigation.
Mr Finnigan told 3AW yesterday he only briefly met Mr Eren, who he said appeared uncomfortable with the proposal for him to campaign in Ms Neville’s electorate.
But Mr Eren dodged questions about whether he had
been pressured tb to be i involved ld in the scheme by senior members of the Labor Party.
“At the end of the day, this is not about blame shifting,” the Sports Minister said.
“There were certainly discussions about who to employ (and) that was part of the process; who the potential employee was. That’s why I met with Jake.”
Mr Eren also said he was not disappointed with the way the issue was handled by the party leadership at the time.
“This happened a number of years ago. It’s no good dwelling on the past,” he said. “Obviously the guidelines have tightened up. Now everyone knows where they stand and it’s not ambiguous.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said all of the misappropriated funds had been repaid.
But Geelong-based Liberal MPs Andrew Katos and Simon Ramsay have said that was not good enough and called on Ms Tierney, Mr Eren and Ms Neville to resign.
“It’s a disgraceful misuse of taxpayer funds,” Mr Katos said. “What an awful message to send to the community: basically if you do the wrong thing, but you get caught and offer to pay it back, then everything is fine. That’s simply not acceptable.”
Mr Ramsay went one step further than his colleagues in pressuring the trio to resign from parliament altogether.
“They stole from their employer — which is the taxpayer — and they should be treated like anyone else who steals money from their employer,” he said.
“They’re no different. Just because they’re parliamentarians, they shouldn’t be exempt from what any other worker in the workplace would face.”
A spokeswoman for Ms Tierney said the Corrections Minister would not be stepping down.
“The Ombudsman has delivered an extensive report into these matters and has not recommended any action against anyone,” she said.
Ms Neville, who holds the police and water portfolios, also rejected calls for her to quit. “The Ombudsman has found no wrongdoing on my behalf or any other MP, in fact it found that all MPs involved acted in good faith and derived no personal benefit,” she said. LABOR is sorry for a $388,000 election campaign rort and has repaid the money, but Premier Daniel Andrews won’t step down over the scandal embroiling several of his senior ministers.
The state Ombudsman’s damning report yesterday named 21 Labor MPs, past and present, who were found to have breached parliamentary guidelines during the party’s 2014 election campaign.
They used taxpayer funds intended to staff electorate offices to instead pay personnel acting as campaign officers, taking the party message to marginal seats. Mr Andrews said the money had been repaid in full.
“I am sorry this has occurred, and really the most important thing here is to ensure that we prove that we are sincere in that apology,” he said. The Premier said he would not stand down and there was no need for the sitting MPs and ministers named to quit.
Ombudsman Deborah Glass earlier said the MPs who participated in the arrangement and signed time-sheets evidently believed it was legitimate.
“But while they received little or no personal benefit from the use of parliamentary funds for campaigning purposes, which almost invariably benefited the election prospects of others, 21 members of the 57th parliament breached the Members’ Guide.”
Among the MPs named by the ombudsman are Attorney-General Martin Pakula, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, Families Minister Jenny Mikakos and Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings.