NSW Labor have long had an unenviable reputation for corruption. With the likes of Eddie Obeid and Sam Dastyari amongst its alumni, “Sussex Street” (the party headquarters) was (and is) virtually a byword for branch-stacking and bribery.
“Hold my chardonnay,” says Victoria.
Victorian minister Adem Somyurek handed over thousands of dollars in secret cash drop-offs and used political advisers meant to be working for other MPs to stack branches with fake members and amass significant political power inside the Australian Labor Party.
Mr Somyurek, the Local Government and Small Business Minister and member of the ALP national executive, handed a folder containing $2000 and dozens of party membership forms to an adviser working for another Andrews government minister[…]to pay for new members, according to hours of video and audio recording.
Pfft. Two lousy grand? That’s chump change compared to NSW Labor, who get handed Aldi shopping bags of cash by Chinese communists.
Branch stacking is as Labor as going to a private school and having an Arts-Law degree.
Branch stacking allows political powerbrokers to control the numbers in grassroots branches, which help decide the candidacy of federal and state members of Parliament. ALP rules prohibit the practice of paying for other people’s memberships and require members to sign a form declaring they have paid for their own memberships.
The Age and 60 Minutes have seen copies of the membership forms used by Mr Somyurek in his branch stacking operations and have spoken to several of the new party recruits. Some admitted they did not pay for their own memberships, while others were unable to name the Premier of Victoria.
As is typical of ALP branch stacking, immigrant communities are treated with disdain.
He claims Melbourne’s growing Indian community make better members than “Anglos”.
“Stacking Anglos, it’s not going to work. Anglos just f— off after a while,” Mr Somyurek says in one recording just before Christmas. In another, he says: “The good thing about Indians is they pay. Well, people pay for them. But I’d rather not be exposed too much with the Indians.”
In a political version of the legendary Melbourne-Sydney rivalry, the Andrews government seems to be throwing down the gauntlet to NSW Labor for the trophy of most corrupt party in Australia. Some of Andrews’ greatest hits so far include signing up for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, using union thugs to crush the volunteer Country Fire Authority, and the Red Shirts scandal – which saw Labor members and MPs openly defy investigators by simply refusing to show up for police interviews. And getting away with it.
Still, the tapes provide some of the funniest political comedy since Jeff Kennett and Andrew Peacock were recorded on an old-timey mobile phone convo, bagging out John Howard.
I said, “Howard. You’re a c–t. You haven’t got my support, you never will have and I’m not going to rubbish you or the party tomorrow but I feel a lot better having told you you’re a c–t”
– Jeff Kennett.
“F— the Premier,” [Somyurek] says on one tape, while in another he claims he will be running Victoria if Mr Andrews steps down. “I’ll be just running the joint … It’s who I say is going to be the f—ing premier.”
At this rate, Andrews is mounting a serious challenge to Tommy Bent as most corrupt premier in Victoria’s history.
If the voters of Australia’s most woke state obediently hand this socialist clown another term, then they deserve everything they get.
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