Premier Daniel Andrews says he has always followed the Labor Party’s rules, a day after his fourth cabinet minister resigned for breaching them. 

Luke Donnellan stepped down from cabinet on Monday, just hours after federal MP Anthony Byrne told an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission inquiry he had paid other people’s Labor Party membership fees. 

Mr Byrne said he, Mr Donnellan and then-Labor Party powerbroker Adem Somyurek did so to boost their moderate faction’s influence in Melbourne’s southeast and ensure their preferred candidates were preselected.  

The practice is known as branch stacking and while not illegal, it is against Labor Party rules. 

Mr Byrne told the inquiry he reached out in 2002 to the party’s socialist left faction, which included Mr Andrews, to broker a deal to minimise branch stacking in the southeast. 

Speaking outside parliament on Tuesday, Mr Andrews denied having taken part in branch stacking. 

“I follow the party’s rules and I behave appropriately,” he said. 

“I’d expect all my colleagues behave appropriately at all times.” 

Mr Andrews said he had not attended a meeting of the socialist left in 11 years, noting he was in his mid-twenties at the time of the so-called “peace” in the southeast.

“All of us like to think of ourselves as very important when we’re 24 and 25, but we rarely are,” he said. 

Mr Andrews conceded there was a “cultural problem” within the party, but he had taken “unprecedented action” to remedy it including an audit of Victorian Labor Party members and a suspension of voting rights until 2023.

“Significant steps were taken. We have made changes, but we may need to go further,” he said. 

Mr Donnellan, who held the portfolios of child protection, ageing, disability and carers, is the fourth government minister to resign over branch stacking. 

Mr Somyurek quit the Labor Party last year before he was expelled following a Nine Network investigation into the scandal. 

His factional allies Robin Scott and Marlene Kairouz also resigned from cabinet following the expose. All three deny wrongdoing.

In a statement, 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”.

“However, I don’t believe it is possible or appropriate to maintain my ministerial responsibilities given these rule breaches,” he said. 

Arriving at parliament on Tuesday, Deputy Premier James Merlino and senior government ministers Jacinta Allan and Martin Pakula all denied paying for others’ Labor memberships. 

However, Mr Pakula suggested “there are some (MPs) that are anxious” as IBAC hearings resume.

When asked if any MP accused of branch stacking should resign, Mr Pakula said “every situation needs to be judged on its merits”. 

“These things have been happening across both political parties for decades and I think the circumstances of every situation is quite different,” he said. 

Shadow Attorney-General Tim Smith said every minister adversely named in IBAC’s inquiry should stand down.

“This Labor government is rotten to the core … At the end of the day, the buck stops with the premier and his government looks increasingly corrupt,” he said.

Mr Byrne continues his evidence before the inquiry on Tuesday and will be followed by his former electorate officer Ellen Schreiber.

AAP

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