I suppose you’ve got to grudgingly admire Daniel Andrews for sheer, bloody chutzpah. In the same week that a whistleblower alleged high-level police interference in the Red Shirts investigation, and the state Ombudsman was asked to investigate the corruption scandal for the third time — Dan goes right out and does it again.
This is as brazen as an accused thief using his court appearance to pick the pockets of the judge and the jury.
Labor campaigners and a senior party official have met taxpayer-funded electorate staff during work hours to discuss the campaign strategy for the upcoming state election in a potential breach of strict laws introduced three years ago.
Those laws were introduced partly in response to the original Red Shirts scandal. In that case, Labor electoral staff — paid for by the public purse — were dressed in red shirts and sent out to doorknock on the campaign trail. It was illegal even then to use taxpayer funds, such as the wages of electoral staff, for campaign purposes. Labor apologised and paid back $388,000, although the true figure bilked off the taxpayer is alleged to be much higher. But Labor MPs implicated in the scandal were never interviewed by police, much less charged.
Last week, a whistleblower claimed that that was because high-ranking police officials leaned on the investigating officers to drop it.
“Dictator Dan” is apparently feeling emboldened at having gotten away with it.
Victorian Labor assistant secretary Nicola Castleman met government MPs and some electorate officers at Parliament House during the first parliamentary sitting week of this month to discuss Labor’s election strategy, according to a well-informed source at parliament who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
The Age has sighted further evidence that field organisers, who train and manage the army of Labor volunteers who will doorknock and telephone voters in the lead-up to the November 26 poll, have also met MPs and their electorate staffers in electorate offices during work hours over the past few weeks to discuss the party’s election campaign strategy.
Castleman was involved in the “Community Action Network”, which was Labor’s official euphemism for the Red Shirts.
Labor is falling back on its good, old “Yas can’t prove nuttin’” defence.
A spokesperson for the government said The Age had “refused to provide evidence to substantiate these claims beyond anonymous allegations”, adding that “all Members of Parliament who attended the meetings in question have confirmed that no staff were present”. The Labor Party was contacted for comment.
Remember, it was just last month that Andrews told Victorians that he was really, really, really sorry, even though he din’t do nuffin’, and it would never happen again.
After that report, Labor committed to crack down further on MPs misusing electorate staff.
Under the 2019 law, electorate staff are prohibited from doing campaign work in office hours. They are also not allowed to direct how a person should vote at an election by promoting a political party or the election of any candidate.
But in the recent meetings, a well-informed senior Labor Party source said the discussion was about the forthcoming election campaign. Electorate officers were told during work hours that Labor volunteers would support the MPs’ re-election, and they were offered a detailed account of how ALP headquarters would campaign over the next three months to secure the Andrews government a third term in office. Field organisers also went through the campaign plans with electorate office staff […]
The Age has confirmed that, since the work-hours meetings took place, parliamentarians and Labor Party headquarters have told the campaigners that future weekly catch-up meetings should take place after 5pm.
The Age
Remember, too, that Labor last month had the cheek to go on the attack against Liberal leader Matthew Guy, when his former chief of staff was caught trying to wrangle dodgy personal deals with a party donor.
Then again, Dan Andrews had the barefaced cheek to boast that Victoria’s disastrous hotel quarantine scheme — which led directly to 800 deaths and an entire second wave of Covid — was “gold standard”.
There’s an old Melbourne saying that perfectly describes this sort of brazen chancer: “More front than Myers”.
