It has been just over two years since an expose by The Age and 60 Minutes revealed the full extent of then Labor MP Adem Somyurek’s industrial-scale branch-stacking and influence-peddling operation within the Victorian Labor Party. The media revelations triggered not just Somyurek’s sacking from the ministry and resignation from the party, but a broader probe by Labor into how its rules and practices had become so warped.
On Wednesday, it was the turn of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) and the Victorian Ombudsman to release the findings of their joint investigation. After tapping phones and holding public and private hearings, including the use of coercive powers, the two powerful regulators could not have produced a stronger indictment not just of Somyurek’s behaviour, but of the political culture in Victorian Labor.
Premier Daniel Andrews’ addresses the media to respond to the damning report.Credit:Paul Jeffers
It was a “catalogue of unethical and inappropriate behaviour and concerning practices”, they said.
Several main abuses were revealed. Grants to community groups were handed out with inadequate scrutiny because those groups were important in some factional battle or other; staff in ALP head office turned a blind eye to evidence of branch stacking and the payment of members’ fees; staff and MPs knew of signatures being forged; MPs’ staff had unauthorised access to sensitive information on ALP databases.
Despite these findings, the government had ignored an ombudsman’s recommendation in 2018, after the red shirts affair, that the law should be strengthened. As a result, a grey area remained that meant IBAC and the ombudsman had to conclude that on this occasion, no laws had been broken. It was, the report found, “grey, or soft, corruption, where politicians make decisions that are difficult to prosecute to the criminal standard of proof, but that unfairly favour their or their party’s political interests or the political or commercial interests of people and entities in their networks”.
All this, the report said, put Victoria well behind other states on the key measure of parliamentary integrity. It’s a devastating conclusion.
Adem Somyurek attempted to play down his role in Labor’s branch-stacking scandal, despite the damning findings.Credit:Paul Jeffers
Premier Daniel Andrews, who was questioned privately by IBAC over these issues and then faced robust questioning at a press conference about his own past behaviour, should feel the weight of it. He has done the right thing by promising to implement all 21 recommendations from the report. But that does not exonerate him or his party for behaviours that have been going on for decades, with responses until now rightly described by Ombudsman Deborah Glass as “tepid”.
Special mention should be made of Somyurek here. He took existing egregious behaviours to new heights and then tried to pass them off as business as usual. His responses have rarely risen above the laughable. He has denied, obfuscated, abused his accusers, falsely cried “racism” and sued this organisation for defamation.
Then yesterday he had the front to convene a media conference to say: “It’s a very good day for me … I’m happy, I feel relieved, exonerated, finally get my life back.”
It’s nothing of the sort. But it’s another example of the “nothing to see here” attitude that people like Somyurek on both sides of politics have used for so long to obscure their own wrongdoing.
Andrews had no choice but to respond as he did. The defeat of the Morrison government, partly over integrity issues, shows that public tolerance for misuse of public funds has evaporated – as it should.
Let’s be clear: this form of “grey corruption” uses citizens’ taxes and the time of public servants for the private political benefit of parties. It is no better than using public funds to pay for carparks in marginal seats, or stacking public boards with political mates and allies.
Andrews had no choice but to respond as he did. The defeat of the Morrison government, partly over integrity issues, shows that public tolerance for misuse of public funds has evaporated – as it should.
With an election in November, Andrews must not only say the right things, he must do them. Nobody should forget Labor has been dragged to this. Without whistleblowers, the investigative journalism of The Age’s Nick McKenzie and Sumeyya Ilanbey, and some robust anti-corruption investigations by IBAC and the ombudsman, Somyurek and his mates would likely still be ministers, and still plotting how to entrench their power.
The Age will continue to scrutinise the government to ensure its promised changes to the law are implemented in full.
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