Dan silent on rort probe
Premier won’t say if Geelong MPs will speak with police
PREMIER Daniel Andrews has refused to say whether his MPs, including two from Geelong, will co-operate with police who want to grill them over Labor’s red shirts rort.
News Corp revealed yesterday that police had begun requesting interviews with MPs involved in the scheme that siphoned almost $388,000 from parliamentary budgets to partpay campaign staff ahead of the 2014 election.
Among 21 Labor members involved in the scheme were Lara MP John Eren and Western Victoria member Gayle Tierney.
The requests for interviews come after dozens of investigators arrested 17 former campaign staff in August.
With fewer than 40 days until the state election, Mr Andrews yesterday refused to comment when asked how many of his MPs had been contacted by police.
“As this is an ongoing matter I’m unable to provide any commentary at all,” he said.
“It would be completely inappropriate for me to provide any commentary at all.”
Mr Andrews also refused to answer questions about whether his MPs would co-operate with the police investigation, and whether voters had a right to know the position of MPs caught up in the probe.
Six government ministers — Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings, AttorneyGeneral Martin Pakula, Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos, Corrections Minister Ms Tierney, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio and Sports Minister Mr Eren — were among the Labor MPs in- volved in the scheme.
The Government repeatedly attempted to block an Ombudsman’s investigation into the rort, launching a series of legal challenges to her power.
It also passed an “exclusive cognisance” motion in parliament to protect its Lower House MPs from her investigation.
Despite the stonewalling, Ombudsman Deborah Glass found in March that the “artifice” was “wrong” and police launched a formal investigation months later.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said that Labor’s damaging rorts-for-votes saga differed from the current court drama of Nationals MP Tim McCurdy because it involved taxpayers’ money.
Mr McCurdy was earlier this month committed to stand trial on fraud charges for allegedly wrongly using a former colleague’s letterhead to sell and collect commission on two dairy farms in 2009.
“That is a private matter … Tim will deal with that,” Mr Guy said. “You are seeing government ministers, in relation to taxpayer expenses in their roles as Members of Parliament, being investigated for potential fraud.”