GEELONG RORTS TWIST

Tierney Labor staffer linked to another South Barwon candidate

A GEELONG man exposed as a key campaign organiser under the Government’s rorts-for-votes scandal has allegedly been helping another South Barwon Labor candidate ahead of November’s election.

Marcus Feaver was paid almost $21,000 as an electoral officer for Geelong-based Upper House MP Gayle Tierney but spent 68 days supporting the campaign of Labor’s South Barwon candidate Andy Richards. The state Opposition claims Mr Feaver has returned to work for Ms Tierney but is “actively campaigning” for current Labor South Barwon candidate Darren Cheeseman.

A GEELONG man exposed as a key campaign organiser under the Government’s rortsfor-votes scandal has allegedly been helping South Barwon’s Labor candidate ahead of November’s election.

Marcus Feaver was paid almost $21,000 as an electoral officer for Geelong-based Upper House MP Gayle Tierney. However, the Ombudsman found that during his employment Mr Feaver spent 68 days supporting the cam- paign of Labor’s South Barwon candidate Andy Richards.

Mr Feaver was among 21 people paid a total of $387,842 in taxpayer funds and used by Labor as field organisers in the run up to the 2014 State Election.

Despite the furore over the rorts-for-votes scheme, Mr Feaver has returned to work for Ms Tierney, according to the State Opposition.

In a situation that raises fresh queries over the misuse of staff budget entitlements, South Barwon MP Andrew Katos also claimed Mr Feaver was “actively campaigning” for Labor.

Mr Feaver has twice been photographed on the campaign trail with new South Barwon candidate Darren Cheeseman, as the former federal MP aims to topple Mr Katos.

“Given that Ms Tierney has been caught out rorting the taxpayer once, how can anyone believe that she is not doing it all over again?” Mr Katos said.

When asked by the Geelong Advertiser about Mr Feaver’s employment tasks and dur- ation, a government spokeswoman declined to respond.

“The Ombudsman found that all MPs involved acted in good faith, derived no personal benefit and believed they were participating in long-standing, DPS approved, staff-pooling arrangements,” the spokeswoman said.

“There were no recommendations of action against anyone involved.

“It’s typical of the cowardly Mr Katos to hide behind parliamentary privilege to attack staff — it tells you all you need to know about him.”

Mr Feaver told the Ombudsman that Ms Tierney made it clear to him that in 2014 he was to split his time “between doing electorate officer work in her office and doing field organiser work”.

When not working on electorate business, Mr Feaver would meet with election campaign staff, recruit and train volunteers and distribute campaign material.

Mr Feaver was also one of two men posing with Mr Cheeseman in a photo to promote a “mobile office” at a Torquay supermarket in late February. The former Corangamite MP refers to “my South Barwon Labor team” in that Facebook post.

The Opposition also turned the spotlight on Lara MP John Eren, who refused to directly answer if an additional field organiser had been employed in his office from April 2014.

Whistleblower Jake Finnigan told investigators that, after he resigned from Mr Eren’s office, he was replaced in the role by Ben McMullin.

No information was given to the Ombudsman about Mr McMullin’s employment.