MP breaks ranks over rorts

A LABOR MP has sensationally broken ranks to reveal he raised concerns about the party’s rorts-for-votes scheme with Premier Daniel Andrews before the last election.

South Eastern Metro MP Adem Somyurek declared under oath at a parliamentary inquiry yesterday he had concerns about the “unusual” campaign funding arrangement in 2014, before raising the issue with Mr Andrews after a caucus meeting.

“I sort of raised the matter, probably for my own comfort and reassurances. The whole thing probably lasted a few seconds,” Mr Somyurek said.

He was appearing before a Legislative Council Privileges Committee inquiry into the misuse of parliamentary funds identified by Ombudsman Deborah Glass.

About $388,000 was rorted by the ALP when it part-paid for full-time election campaign staff through state MP electorate office budgets.

Ms Glass described the scheme as an “artifice” aimed at boosting campaign coffers, and said the architect was former treasurer John Lenders who “should have known better”.

When her report was tabled in March, Mr Andrews held a press conference and when asked if MPs had raised concerns said: “I don't believe so.”

The following day, he said: “Let me be very clear, no such approaches were made”.

Mr Somyurek told the inquiry Mr Lenders, who led Labor in the Legislative Council in 2014, approached him to take part but he initially resisted because of the “unusual” arrangement of filling in timesheets for pooled staff.

He said he asked for written assurance, which never came.

Late yesterday the saga took another explosive turn, when an irate Mr Somyurek took to ABC Radio to defend his sworn evidence.

The veteran MP, who is at the centre of a public factional brawl, was angry that host Raf Epstein had tweeted: “Nothing like a factional rival to p--- all over what everyone else is saying in government.”

The veteran MP demanded Epstein take down the tweet, declaring: “I was motivated by the truth.”

“What did you want me to do, say I can’t recall?” he said.

He also called Mr Andrews “a victim” of the scheme.

Mr Somyurek told the inquiry Mr Andrews may have thought he was whinging about losing resources when he raised the issue in 2014.

“In hindsight I should have made an appointment, sat down with him and took him through my concerns,” he said.

He also said he felt Mr Lenders pressured MPs to take part — something Families Minister Jenny Mikakos later told the inquiry she did not experience.

Mr Lenders defended the scheme, saying he thought it was fine because parliament kept paying the bills.

He questioned the inquiry’s legitimacy, declaring he had not received “procedural fairness” and rejected the ombudsman’s suggestion the scheme was an artifice.

“I believed I was working within an acceptable framework,” Mr Lenders said. “It was a fraught option in a highly charged environment of an election.

“You’ve got to try it on and if (parliamentary services) pay, you know it’s met their ultimate test.”