Scandals that have rocked the Andrews Labor Government under Daniel Andrews including branch stacking, hotel quarantine and bullying:

BRANCH STACKING

• The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) is investigating allegations former minister Adem Somyurek led a branch stacking regime for years with factional allies, paying for others’ Labor memberships to influence parliamentary candidate preselections.
• The matter was exposed in June 2020 and Mr Somyurek quit the Labor Party before he was expelled. His two allies, Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott, resigned from the ministry. All three deny wrongdoing.
• When IBAC’s public hearings started on Monday with federal MP Anthony Byrne, Victorian minister for ageing, carers, child protection and disability Luke Donnellan was also named, prompting him to resign from cabinet.
• Mr Donnellan said that while he had breached party rules, he had “never misused public funds or resources in any way. And this has absolutely nothing to do with my staff”.

COVID-19 HOTEL QUARANTINE

• Health Minister Jenny Mikakos resigned in September 2020 after Premier Daniel Andrews told a judicial inquiry her department was ultimately responsible for the botched hotel quarantine program.
• More than 18,000 COVID-19 infections and 800 deaths can be traced back to private security guards who breached infection control procedures while working in the program.
• The inquiry was unable to identify a single person responsible for the decision to hire the guards.

FIRE SERVICES REFORM

• Former emergency services minister Jane Garrett quit cabinet rather than sign off on a controversial firefighters’ union pay deal in 2016.
• She remains in parliament serving the Eastern Victoria electorate in the Legislative Council after making the switch from her marginal lower house seat of Brunswick.
• IBAC has been investigating the union’s role in the fire services reform since 2019.

PRINTING RORTS

• Upper House MP Khalil Eideh’s electoral office was accused of misusing printing allowances to fund party branch stacking.
• A parliamentary-wide audit found questionable invoices, which were referred to IBAC.
• He resigned as deputy president of the Legislative Council in October 2017, then retired at the 2018 election.
• IBAC charged three people – including two former electorate officers – with a total of 13 charges in 2018.

RED SHIRTS SCANDAL

• The Labor party misused $388,000 in parliamentary allowances to pay political campaign staff during the 2014 election.
• The Victorian Ombudsman found 21 past and present Labor MPs breached parliamentary guidelines when staff were diverted to help campaign for members.
• The rort was subject to a police investigation spanning more than 12 months but no criminal charges were laid.

COUNTRY ALLOWANCES FOR METRO MEMBERS

• In 2017, former Legislative Assembly Speaker Telmo Languiller and his deputy Don Nardella were found to have rorted an allowance for country MPs who have to stay in Melbourne during parliamentary sittings, prompting their resignations.
• Mr Languiller represented Tarneit but claimed the allowance to live in Queenscliff in 2016. He repaid the $38,000 claimed and did not recontest the election.
• Mr Nardella claimed the allowance since 2010, first living in Ballarat and later in seaside Ocean Grove even though he represented Melton. He initially quit the Labor party rather than agree to the premier’s demand to pay back $98,000.
• Mr Nardella later agreed to a payment plan and a $16,000 lump sum.
• The scandal resulted in the creation of the tribunal meant to take pay issues out of the control of MPs themselves.
• Then in April 2019, Victoria’s former assistant treasurer Robin Scott paid back $60,000 in allowances he unknowingly received as part of his government pay packet between 2014 and 2016.

PATCH AND TED

• In November 2016, Steve Herbert, then-member for Northern Victoria and the training and skills minister, resigned for using his taxpayer funded driver to chauffeur his dogs Patch and Ted between his Melbourne and Trentham homes.
• He paid back $192.80 in travel expenses for the trips and donated $1000 to a Woodend animal shelter. He left parliament in 2017.

BULLYING

In 2014, Adem Somyurek was made small business, innovation, and trade minister after Labor won the election.

In May 2015, he stood down from cabinet after his then-chief of staff Dimity Paul accused him of bullying, which he denied.

He then resigned in July 2015 after an investigation by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

AAP

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