By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Ian Cook – the owner of Dandenong South business I Cook Foods – is going head to head against Premier Daniel Andrews in the November state election.
Mr Cook will stand as an independent candidate on an anti-corruption platform in Mr Andrews’s Mulgrave electorate.
Spurred by his destroyed business in what’s been labelled ‘slug gate’, his aim is primarily to hold Mr Andrews to “account” by ousting him from his seat.
His cause would be aided under a new Coalition State Government, who he believes would launch a new inquiry into hotel quarantine as well as corruption allegations.
But he says he doesn’t care if Labor gets back in.
“We just want to make sure Daniel Andrews doesn’t get re-elected.”
Mr Cook is suing Greater Dandenong Council and the state’s Department of Health, accusing them of wrongly shutting down and destroying his business as part of a fatal food-poisoning investigation in early 2019.
As a result, 41 workers lost their livelihoods.
All 96 charges against him and ICF were later withdrawn by Greater Dandenong Council.
The ‘slug gate’ scandal – including allegations of a health inspector planting a slug on the ICF factory floor – has been examined by two Parliamentary inquiries and several Victoria Police investigations.
No charges have been laid against public officials.
Mr Cook’s election campaign is not just about ICF but to ensure other businesses don’t wrongly suffer the same fate, he says.
“Justice will not be done until the unaffected are as outraged as the affected.
“People who aren’t affected need to look at what happened with ‘Red Shirts’, hotel quarantine and I Cook Foods.”
Mr Cook noted a recent whistleblower’s claims that there was political interference in the police investigation into ‘Red Shirts’.
“You can’t have rules for the elite and rules for the rest of us. That’s how democracy dies.
“We have to have faith in the parts of the system that are there to protect us.”
Among Mr Cook’s anti-corruption reforms would be to ensure the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and the Victorian Ombudsman are “arm’s length” from political interference.
Police chief commissioners should be elected by State Parliament, for instance.
He’d also push to change the state’s Food Act to stop councils receiving the fines imposed by its food-health officers. It was a situation that “invites corruption”.
Higher standards should apply to health officers in their use of body cameras and capturing evidence.
His modestly-funded, grass-roots campaign will feature door-knocking “home by home, street by street, shop by shop” and public forums in halls, churches and community centres.
“We’re going to show the truth of what happened to I Cook Foods
“We’ll invite Daniel Andrews to come along and rebut anything that we say.”
The famous truck advertising sign featuring the slug could also be employed.
Living one street out of the electorate, he says he understands the seat well.
His mother grew up in Brandon Park, his father worked in the Mulgrave seat and his children were born in the electorate.
Having grown up in Labor stock, he says he had never before been interested in politics.
He says his Labor-supporting ancestors would be “rolling in their graves with what’s happening in Labor”.
“This campaign is not going to be about the Right and Left. It’s about right and wrong.”
He’s undaunted by Mr Andrews’ safe margin of more than eight per cent – after a recent electoral boundary redistribution.
“I know the number of people who think it’s incredibly important and want to volunteer for the campaign.
“It’s been overwhelming. And it’s helped me to decide we want to do this.”
