By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A state MP and former Greater Dandenong mayor has not responded to alleged links to an extensive ALP branchstacking operation.
In its recent expose, Nine Network alleges in a covertly-recorded phone call that Clarinda MP Meng Heang Tak was instructed to stack a party branch with 13 people per month by factional powerbroker Adem Somyurek.
According to party rules, a maximum of 13 members can be added to a branch at each meeting.
“From now on, it’s just going to be hard, hard, hard war … and then we’re going to start big recruiting,” the Dandenong-based Mr Somyurek allegedly told Mr Tak.
According to Nine, it’s unclear whether Mr Tak obeyed the directive.
In another recorded call to an undisclosed person, Mr Somyurek claimed he’d secured the Clarinda state seat for Mr Tak – who was duly elected in 2018 with a safe 17.5 per cent margin.
The seat, which includes parts of Springvale, was formerly held by Hong Lim.
“Whereas Hong used to be this f***ing whingeing turd, Heang’s not like that,” Mr Somyurek tells the other person.
“It’s like, ‘I got you in [to Parliament], you gotta do as I say.’”
In the call, Mr Somyurek says how he told Heang that “we support you for preselection and you hand your votes (branch members) over.”
Mr Tak has not responded to the Star Journal’s enquiries.
In a statement since the allegations, Mr Somyurek has denied branch-stacking – which is the improper recruiting of party members to influence the preselection of election candidates.
“With respect to allegations made around memberships of the party, I reject those and will be providing a rigorous defence during any party process.”
Mr Somyurek stated he’d seek a police investigation into the use of surveillance recordings in a “Federal electorate office without my knowledge” as part of the Nine report.
Mr Somyurek was sacked as Local Government and Small Business Minister on 15 June after the Nine Network reports accusing him of using Parliamentary staff and paying thousands for fake memberships as part of an extensive branch-stacking enterprise.
He later resigned from the ALP, which has since expelled him from its membership for life.
Labor Ministers Robin Scott and Marlene Kairouz, who were also named in Nine’s report, stepped down from their Cabinet posts.
The matter is being jointly investigated by the State Ombudsman and the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).
