EREN CLAMS UP OVER PROBE

TOURISM Minister and Lara MP John Eren has refused to reveal whether police have interviewed him over Labor’s red shirts rort.

Nor would he confirm if he would co-operate with police during their investigation.

When questioned by Geelong Advertiser over his involvement in the saga and whether or not he had been contacted by police about the matter, he said: “As this matter is ongoing, it’s not appropriate to comment.”

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed that the fraud and extortion squad was on track to finish its investigation within weeks.

Police are likely to decide whether or not to lay charges before the state election on November 24.

Police have spent about three months formally investigating the scheme, which saw almost $388,000 from parliamentary budgets to part-pay campaign staff ahead of the 2014 election.

Mr Eren was one of six government ministers, and 21 Labor MPs involved in the scheme.

In a damning report released in March, Ombudsman Deborah Glass labelled the scheme an “artifice” that crossed the line and was “wrong”.

The Ombudsman found the MPs — including Mr Eren — signed timesheets authorising electorate staff to work on the 2014 election campaign.

Mr Eren signed off on $2300 of payments for an electorate officer to work on the campaign, in contravention of parliamentary rules.

He refused to tell the Advertiser why he did this, or whether he properly questioned Labor’s use of public money to pay electorate officers to work on the campaign.

Mr Ashton told 3AW that it was likely the probe would wrap up before the election.

“You never know with these things until they finish do you, but at this point I’m thinking it could be,” he said.

Mr Ashton said the complainant — Opposition Leader Matthew Guy — would be notified of the result and police would do a press conference to explain it publicly.

And the Chief Commissioner said the timing wouldn’t be affected by voting day.

“The election is the election, it’s separate issues, we wouldn’t be stopping the investigation just because an election is due,” Mr Ashton said.

“We obviously want it done as quickly as it can, the com- munity want outcomes … (but) it’s not being driven by election timing.”

He said external legal advice was followed during the process and police would liaise with the Office of Public Prosecutions before making a decision on whether charges were laid.

“It depends on the OPP, because they have to prosecute these matters,” Mr Ashton said.

“It’s no good charging people if the OPP are not up for prosecuting.”