BREAKING: The police decision to arrest Labor Party campaigners in the lead-up to the 2018 election was a mistake, the ombudsman has found. | heyracheddie
Deborah Glass in 2018 said the misuse of $380,000 in public money was wrong.The police decision to arrest Labor Party campaigners in the lead-up to the 2018 election was a mistake, which helped to spin a perception that wrongdoing in the so-called red shirts affair had gone unpunished, Ombudsman Deborah Glass has found.
The red shirts scandal refers to a scheme used in the 2014 election when campaign organisers were employed as casual electorate officers. The staff, who wore red Labor T-shirts, spent most of their working hours campaigning in marginal seats in a misuse of parliament’s budget. But the Ombudsman said at the time there was no evidence the conduct met the criminal threshold of corruption, and on Thursday said no new evidence had come to light to change that or justify using more public resources.
“It is time to end this debate. I cannot, of course, rule out that further evidence may yet come to light, but with the passage of time and difficulty in proof I am not prepared to spend further public resources on these matters.”Victoria Police initially decided against taking action, after finding no evidence of corruption, but started a new investigation in 2018 following a request from the opposition.
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