Tuesday, 2 August 2022

Motions

Parliamentary integrity

Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (13:19): I move:

That this house notes that the:

(1) Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s (IBAC) and Ombudsman’s joint report, Operation Watts, was tabled on 20 July 2022;

(2) Ombudsman’s report Investigation of a Matter Referred from the Legislative Council on 25 November 2015, tabled on 21 March 2018 and known as the red shirts report, drew attention to the theft by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) of $388 000 of taxpayers money and that:

(a) the Premier, the Honourable Daniel Andrews MP, ordered the stolen money to be voluntarily repaid;

(b) despite no recommendation that the money be repaid, the Premier advised Parliament on 27 March 2018 that the ALP had repaid the full amount;

(3) Operation Watts report shows $1 348 750 of taxpayers money was misappropriated by the ALP, which was only a share of what was likely misappropriated, identifying:

(a) over $110 000 paid to a factionally appointed political staffer;

(b) up to $14 000 of stamp purchases misused for political purposes;

(c) almost $30 000 paid to a political staffer who sent only one work email during his entire employment period;

(d) over $1 million in grants awarded by former minister the Honourable Robin Scott MP to Labor-linked community organisations;

(e) $194 750 in grants awarded by former minister the Honourable Marlene Kairouz MP to Labor-linked community organisations;

(4) Premier has intransigently refused to repay the $1 348 750 of taxpayers money misappropriated by the ALP;

and calls on the Premier and the ALP to immediately repay the $1 348 750 identified by IBAC and the Ombudsman.

The motion we move today deals with the widespread misapplication of public resources within the ALP and the Operation Watts report, tabled this month, just a few days ago, on the investigation into allegations of misuse of electorate office and ministerial office staff and resources for branch stacking and other party-related activities. It is an extraordinary report. It lays out massive—massive—misuse of public resources that should have been applied for the benefit of the community but have been applied for the benefit of Labor.

I want to start with this particularly, and I want to make some very, very clear points up-front. Item 739 on page 158 of this report states:

As already stated, the unethical cultures exposed by Operation Watts are not confined to the ML faction. These unethical practices are embedded in the Victorian branch of the ALP and are systemic to all of the ALP’s factions. The evidence adduced enables the conclusion that these practices have been approved or condoned by the party leadership for decades. Leaders must be willing to expose and denounce such activity regardless of their alignment. Without the rigorous participation of the leaders of the branch, the reforms proposed in this report are unlikely to be effective.

This is not just about one group within the ALP; this is about a pattern of behaviour within the Labor Party. It is a crooked Labor Party. It is a Labor Party that has actually not behaved properly. I think it is actually very important that the community understand what has happened here and the amount of money is very, very clear. It is a huge amount of money. When you look at the money identified formally and pointed to here, and this is clearly just the tip of the iceberg inside the ALP, it is a massive amount of money.

The motion points to the report tabled on 20 July. It points to the earlier red shirts report, which saw $388 000 of taxpayers money taken by the ALP. Indeed it says despite no recommendation that the money be repaid, the Premier advised Parliament on 27 March 2018 that the ALP had repaid the full amount. In that case the ALP repaid the money. In this case the Operation Watts report in its various parts points to $1.348 million of taxpayers money misappropriated by the ALP; $110 000 was paid by a political operative. Let us just get on the record some of this. At item 441 on page 91 of this report—I think it is important to put this formally on the record—it says:

One example of a factional staff appointment identified by the investigation was Dr Hussein Haraco, a longstanding ALP member and recruiter … The evidence established that Mr Somyurek employed Dr Haraco based on the number of ALP members he could bring to the faction and that, once employed, Dr Haraco carried out very little (if any) legitimate electorate … work. Dr Haraco was paid more than $110,000 for his casual and part-time work between 2017 and 2020.

It is important also to put on record from page 81, I am going to get these down very clearly so that people understand what is going on, and this is about Electorate Officer X, who was employed from early 2018. This is about stamps. He testified that:

… the purchases were made in increments of between 1,000 and 2,000 stamps each fortnight so as not to arouse suspicion. Electorate Officer X estimated that he spent between $11,000 and $14,000 on this activity.

There is a very specific identification. Again, this is not one faction of the ALP. The IBAC-Ombudsman report makes it clear that all factions of the ALP are involved in this.

The report at page 107 in chapter 5 makes a series of points here too, and it is important to get these down. It says:

Data regarding Electorate Officer Q’s email account showed that he sent only one email during his entire period of employment. Electorate Officer Q acknowledged to the investigation that he was never required to send or receive emails or log in to any systems to perform his role. He said that no performance problems were ever raised with him and that tasks were not assigned appropriately.

It goes on to say, and this is a key point—

Mr Leane interjected.

Mr DAVIS: This is actually a key point. Yes, one Labor MP, but the point is it is a number of Labor MPs that are involved here. Let me be very clear, a series of Labor MPs are involved, but it is not just one faction of the Labor Party, Mr Leane; it is actually a series of factions of the Labor Party. The Ombudsman and IBAC make clear that it is not confined to one faction. It might be your faction, I do not know. But let me just say that at page 120 there is more. Again, I am putting this directly on the record out of the report. At page 120 it points to grants by organisations, and these are activities by the then Minister Scott, a Labor Party minister: Australian Light Foundation grants totalling $677 500, Cambodian Association of Victoria grants totalling $228 593 and Somali Australian Council of Victoria grants totalling $98 725. At point 497, it says:

Ministerial Staffer K, a ministerial adviser for Mr Scott between 2015 and 2020, gave evidence that—

an organisation—

… applied for grants administered through Mr Scott’s ministerial office, but that to his knowledge these were for smaller amounts. Ministerial Staffer K said that the biggest complaint he would receive from Dr Haraco was that—

the particular organisation—

… was receiving less grant money from the Victorian Labor government …

than it did earlier. There you are. But he said, to his knowledge, there had been a series of these grants that were made. These grants were made in a way that does not bear close examination, and it says at a number of points in this report that these were done improperly. Many of these grants were improper. The clear findings that were made in the report make it clear that indeed improper processes were used and improper Labor activity was behind many of these points.

You would have thought after the red shirts report that there would have been a decision to have actually made a very clear attempt to clean up the Labor Party, an attempt to make sure that there was actually no involvement by Labor MPs or Labor ministers in these crooked and unsatisfactory activities. I mean, these are fundamentally corrupt activities—activities that ought not to have occurred, activities that ought to result in repayment by the ALP of this money. It is not unreasonable to ensure that the money is repaid. It is not unreasonable to ensure that money that has been inappropriately awarded in this way and inappropriately used be repaid and repaid in full.

High standards are required here. The Ombudsman and IBAC have proposed a way forward, and we are very amenable to many of their recommendations. We are working through those recommendations. We actually welcome those recommendations. We think they are very helpful and that they will improve integrity. But this is a prior matter. This is about money that was stolen earlier—money that has been misapplied, misappropriated by Labor MPs, by Labor ministers, and that money should be repaid and it should be repaid now. There is no reason why Labor cannot repay that money. That is a separate matter from what the police or others might do. They may well look at these things. But let me just say very clearly: Labor should repay the money in full. This money has been taken by Labor inappropriately, and the Ombudsman and IBAC have made it clear that this is an appropriate use of money. They have made it very clear that that money has been misapplied. I do not see any reason in the world why Daniel Andrews should not insist that the Labor Party repay that money.

That money is taxpayers money. Taxpayers have worked very hard to pay their taxes, to do what is right. They have worked very hard to contribute, and money that is being held in trust by government, money that is being used by government for public purposes, should be focused on public purposes. It should not be focused on party political purposes. It should not be focused on purposes that are directed in such a negative way. It should not be used for the factional purposes that have been outlined in this report. I mean, this report is actually a shocking read. The community are shocked when they read this sort of stuff. Some would say very directly that Daniel Andrews should insist today that all of the money, every cent of the money that is identified in here—and it is a huge amount of money, well over $1 million—should be repaid in full by the Labor Party, which has misused that money. It might be that certain people are no longer Labor Party members, but they were doing all this when they were Labor Party members. In fact the truth of the matter is that every cent should be repaid, and it should be repaid today.

Sitting suspended 1.30 pm until 2.04 pm.

Business interrupted pursuant to order of Council earlier this day.