Victoria’s integrity agencies have excoriated Andrews government MPs and the Labor Party in a damning report. | sumeyyailanbey
The premier conceded to investigators that branch stacking in the ALP was a “serious problem” that heightened the risk of corruption.
The stinging remarks are contained in the final report of Operation Watts, a joint Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and Victorian Ombudsman investigation that laid bare a “catalogue of unethical and inappropriate behaviour and concerning practices” inside the Victorian Labor Party. Andrews conceded to investigators in his private examination that branch stacking in the Labor Party was a “serious problem” that heightened the risk of corruption and must be eliminated, but denied the party did not take the misuse of public resources seriously.
“The Premier, Daniel Andrews, ... strongly denied the existence of a ‘unity ticket’ to only include one element,” the report states.Credit:“He [Andrews] said that Mr Somyurek’s description of a ‘grand coalition’ was a ‘fantasy and a rather self-serving narrative that everyone’s doing it’, but he was not able to provide a reason why [the government did not ban MPs from directing their staff to work on party-political activities].
The evidence showed political patronage being exercised inside Moderate Labor, the report stated, with MPs handing out taxpayer-funded jobs based on factional loyalty and as a reward for recruiting non-genuine members. Many of the Moderate Labor MPs acknowledged their lengthy involvement in branch stacking, usually by paying for other people’s ALP memberships.
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