A dossier of documents released by the state opposition, it obtained under the FOI Act, it claims reveal how the state machinery including the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC), Premier’s Private Office (PPO) and other resources are being used to maximize the ruling party’s presence and speaking opportunities while the opposition is being completely sidelined.
According to the Opposition, Labor is contaminating multicultural events in Victoria with its grey corruption of using taxpayer-funds to run its own agenda. Serious questions have been raised about its use of taxpayer money to fund multicultural events.
The Liberals and Nationals have referred allegations of a potential breach of the VPSC Code of Conduct involving the Premier’s Private Office to the Victorian Public Sector Commission.
Recent examples include:
- Premier’s Multicultural Gala Dinner: After the Premier’s Private Office became involved in organising the event, ticket allocations for Labor MPs, their staff and their guests increased from 67 to 190 tickets out of 1,200 seats. Only one table was allocated to the Opposition. The Premier, the Minister for Multicultural Affairs and a federal Labor Minister delivered speeches. The event cost taxpayers $438,000.
- Premier’s Diwali State Reception: Dozens of Labor MPs attended, while only one Opposition MP was present. The Premier and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs spoke, with no speaking opportunity provided to the Opposition. The event cost taxpayers $381,000.
- Shrove Tuesday event for “diverse Christian communities”: Twenty-two Labor MPs attended, while no invitations were extended to the Opposition. The event cost taxpayers $11,400.
- Premier’s Lunar New Year event: Victoria’s only Vietnamese MP, Trung Luu, was not invited to attend with the Vietnamese community. The Opposition Leader attended but was not permitted to deliver a speech.
Shadow Minister for Multicultural and Multifaith Affairs, Evan Mulholland has raised concerns that taxpayer-funded community events are being used to advance the political interests of the Labor Party in an election year.
Mr Mulholland recently wrote to the Premier calling on her to immediately end the practice and ensure multicultural community events are open and inclusive of all elected representatives.
The day after the letter was sent, the Opposition Leader Jess Wilson and the leader of the Greens were issued last-minute single invitations to a taxpayer-funded Iftar dinner. They were not given an opportunity to deliver a speech, while dozens of Labor MPs attended.
Mr Mulholland said the timing of the invitations raised further questions about the government’s conduct.
“Restricting access to these events, which cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, to Labor MPs and their associates in an election year raises serious concerns,” Mr Mullholand said.
“If the Premier wants to run Labor Party events in an election year, the Labor Party should pay for them.”
According to the documents released by the Opposition, the VMC and/or the Premier’s Private Office spent a good part of their paid calendar year on forming Working Groups and the like to plan for the Premier’s Multicultural Gala Dinner. And the highly paid staff of the Premier’s Private office spent taxpayer paid time to ‘vet‘ the entertainment segment of the program.
Further, what was so secretaive about the name of the presenter of the Welcome to the Country who was going to be paid about $950 of the taxpayer’s money?
Perpahps the state opposition should consider revisiting the usefulness of the tools like the VMC if it wins government in November.