By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Victoria Police should investigate Operation Watts’s corruption allegations against the Labor Party, says the State Opposition.
Opposition police spokesperson Brad Battin said he referred the “egregious alleged cases of fraud, perjury and misuse of public office and funds” to the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions for investigation.
“Those responsible must be held to account,” Mr Battin said.
“If any other Victorian stole money from their workplace, they would be fired and charged. Why does Daniel Andrews think the rules don’t apply to him?”
Mr Battin noted that Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass found a lack of cultural change in the Labor Party since her investigation of the ALP’s $388,000 ‘red shirts rort’ four years ago.
“Daniel Andrews cannot sweep this under the carpet. Labor has again been caught out rorting public money and resources for their own benefit.”
In the Operation Watts report, Moderate Labor’s once-leader Adem Somyurek and his ally Marlene Kairouz were found to have breached both MP and Ministerial codes of conduct, but were not recommended for being charged with misconduct in public office.
“While the conduct was considered to be egregious, the difficulties in proof mean prosecution is not recommended,” the report stated.
Opposition Upper House leader David Davis called on the Labor Party to repay “at least” $1,348,750 of misappropriated taxpayer funds outlined in the Operation Watts report.
The misuse included ALP factional operatives employed as electorate office workers who did “very little (if any) legitimate” work as well as more than $1.1 million of grants to Labor-linked community groups.
Greens acting leader Tim Read said voters needed to answer if Premier Daniel Andrews had taken “full responsibility” for the Operation Watts report.
“Many of his proposed solutions to the problem should have been introduced years ago, because Labor’s branch stacking culture has been an open secret for years.
“Voters backed candidates who called for stronger integrity measures in the federal election and I hope that in the coming state election they look for parties who can hold this government to account.”
After the report was released on 20 July, Mr Andrews apologised and declared he’d take “full responsibility” for the misconduct.
He announced the Government would implement all 21 recommendations from the Operation Watts report.
On top of that, Mr Andrews proposed extra integrity measures on all political parties.
Mr Read said “rules designed to ensure only genuine people are on Labor’s membership list are only half the answer, Labor’s culture needs to change”.
“We generally support measures that clean up politics, but we’ll need to examine the legislation, to ensure that measures needed to clean up Labor’s mess don’t erect needless barriers against getting involved in politics.”
Operation Watts was a joint investigation conducted by the Victorian Ombudsman and the Independent-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).
In a joint statement, the Ombudsman Deborah Glass and IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich welcomed Mr Andrews’ pledge to implement the report’s recommended reforms in full.
“We look forward to all parties and the cross bench accepting and implementing the reforms,” they stated.
“We will be following up in due to course to ensure that the recommendations have been adequately acquitted.”
