Six must depart Cabinet, say Libs

“The Government is in complete crisis. A fish rots from the head and in Victoria, it is rotting.”

LARA MP John Eren and Western Victoria MP Gayle Tierney are among the six Andrews Government ministers who are clinging to their jobs after Victoria Police announced a criminal investigation into Labor’s 2014 rortsfor-votes scheme.

The decision sent shockwaves through the party, with just 120 days until the state election.

Despairing MPs fear it will derail their campaigns.

In a statement, police said they had assessed allegations of “misuse of parliamentary budget entitlements”, exposed by News Corp in 2015 and laid bare in an Ombudsman’s report this year. Detectives from the fraud and extortion squad will lead the investigation.

One Labor MP said yesterday: “This is a bombshell. This is bad, very bad. No one was expecting the police to do this.”

In her report, Ombudsman Deborah Glass found that 21 MPs, including six ministers, spent almost $388,000 on casual electorate officers who helped run ALP campaigns in marginal seats.

The six ministers are Mr Eren who is Sports Minister, Ms Tierney who is Corrections Minister, Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings, Attorney-General Martin Pakula, Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos and Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said those six must stand aside.

“There has never been a situation before where a minister has been subject to a police criminal investigation and not stood aside while that investigation has taken place,” he said. “The Government is in complete crisis. A fish rots from the head, and in Victoria it is rotting.”

But a government spokeswoman indicated no minister would stand aside. Some Labor MPs said the latest twist in the “red shirts” saga was a disaster, but it was likely that Premier Daniel Andrews and the ministers would dig in and keep doing their jobs.

“If six ministers were stood aside, it would have been unsustainable for the Premier to sit in the job,” one MP said. “You can’t have a third of your Cabinet go and not go your-

OPPOSITION LEADER MATTHEW GUY

self.”

One said there was white hot anger that a complaint to police by Mr Guy had triggered a police investigation, and questioned how potential criminality could be possible.

Another said simply: “How can this still be going?”

Police declined to comment yesterday on what was being assessed, but said “a formal investigation will now be conducted by the Fraud and Extortion Squad” in a statement.

Earlier in the day senior police had informed Opposition police spokesman Edward O’Donohue that the complaint he and Mr Guy had made about the matter would be pursued formally.

The Opposition later tried to demand Mr Andrews stand ministers down during a fiery State Parliament debate.

However, the Government quickly adjourned the Legislative Council.

The Legislative Council privileges committee is also probing the rorts-for-votes scheme, and last week heard from Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton.

Mr Ashton said last week that police had declined to open an investigation in 2016 because of advice from a QC, but were re-examining the matter based on the Ombudsman’s report and information obtained during the course of her inquiry.

He outlined potential offences to be considered, including making and using a false document, false accounting, conspiracy to cheat and defraud, and misconduct in public office. But he warned that a police investigation would take months to complete.

Most MPs think this means the police probe will be ongoing when the Government goes into caretaker mode at the end of October, and at the November 24 election.

Mr Andrews has maintained that MPs “acted in good faith”.