Former Labor power broker and minister Adem Somyurek is to move a motion in the upper house of the state’s legislature – the Legislative Council – to have the Labor State government’s infamous “red shirts” scandal referred to IBAC.
According to the Herald Sun, the referral would include “the role of the then opposition leader, the Hon Daniel Andrews MP, in designing, propagating, and facilitating the scheme,” the motion says.
If the matter goes to IBAC for investigation, Adem Somyurek will also be one of the many Labor MPs, potentially including the premier who will be called to give evidence.
Why would someone do it to themselves?
Writing a piece in the Herald Sun, Adem Somyurek explained:
“Why am I putting a motion up on Tuesday morning to have myself and 24 other current and former Labor MPs referred to IBAC for a serious corruption investigation?
“The answer is we participated in the biggest political scandal in Victoria’s history and benefited by winning office.”
The target clearly is Premier Daniel Andrews who has refused to comment on this latest development.
“I’ve got no comment to make on that,” the Premier said.
“Those matters are for the Legislative Council.”
Also read: Daniel Andrews finally cuts ties with Safe Schools founder Roz Ward
Explaining the rort and claiming it was the brainchild of none other than the then Opposition leader Daniel Andrews, Adem Somyurek writes:
In the lead-up to the 2014 state election campaign, Andrews discovered a new campaigning technique referred to as field campaigning.
Andrews figured he had a competitive advantage in this area through the Labor Party’s and the union movement’s activist base.
Andrews would share with shadow cabinet his vision of having workers in uniforms, firefighters, nurses, ambulances and other service providers calling constituents directly to canvass for support. He was particularly excited about the United Firefighters Union because it had big trucks and sirens.
He was like a child, eyes beaming as he talked about the prospect of having the fire trucks and sirens campaign for him during the lead-up and at polling booths.
…
His passionate advocacy soon turned into action as then treasurer John Lenders began to do the rounds of MPs to hand over their staffing entitlements.
We participated because we were told parliamentary services had ticked off on the scheme.
The red shirts scandal involved the parliament paying for the wages of electorate officers who did not attend the office of the MP who employed them. Instead, they sat in a campaign office and campaigned for Labor.
The parliamentary leadership of the ALP coerced about 25 Labor MPs to sign false documentation stating the officers had performed electorate office work for them.
…
No wonder the motion being introduced by Adem would also call to refer to IBAC all electorate officers and ministerial advisers performing factional tasks during work hours from all factions of the Australian Labor Party.
Not leaving anything to guesses, Adem would also like to include a look into the ‘public service’ appointments which he believes has been ‘stacked’ with Labor sympathisers
He would also like the social media unit of the premier to be investigated which he believes, being tax payer funded does more than just the government business.
Adem Somyurek has labelled this ‘red shirts’ affair – ‘gold standard rort’ and the biggest political scandal in our state’s history.
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