Ibac’s finding will only widen the trust deficit between Victorian voters and MPs

The report of a first ever joint investigation by Victoria’s Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission and the Victorian ombudsman, Operation Watts, paints a bleak and disturbing picture of the culture and practices within the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor party.

It highlights the highly unethical behaviour that took place in relation to the “Red Shirts” affair and the unconscionable branch-stacking and other disgraceful practices which, among other things, involved the misuse of public funds by particular MPs who belonged to the moderate Labor faction.

The Red Shirts affair showed how the party deliberately schemed to use taxpayers’ funds to hire electoral staff but then directed them to undertake party-political work. This occurred in the lead-up to the 2014 state election that saw the Andrews-led Labor party win power.

It is worth remembering that the premeditated scheme was first reported in the media in 2015 and referred to the ombudsman by the legislative council for investigation. The ombudsman was prevented from releasing her report until March 2018 as the government did all it could to prevent her from doing so. It went to the Victorian supreme court, the court of appeal and then appealed to the high court. All of these actions were unsuccessful.

As the ombudsman said in the Operation Watts report, the “Red Shirts report highlighted the need for reform in 2018”. She described the response to it as “tepid” and noted that the Watts report “highlights how little has changed”.

Operation Watts also found: “The evidence, public and private, painted a compelling picture of jobs on the public purse according to factional loyalty and widespread misuse of public resources for political purposes.”

The highly unethical behaviour of Adem Somyurek and Marlene Kairouz of the moderate Labor faction is severely criticised and it has been recommended that both these former ministers in the Andrews government be referred to the parliamentary privileges committee although no criminal charges will be laid.

Words such as “extraordinary” and “shocking” were used to describe the Party’s conduct that involved the hiring of unqualified people to fulfil publicly funded positions, utilising those roles for factional duties, nepotism, the forging of signatures, bullying and attempts to interfere with government grants so as to support factionally aligned community organisations. In some instances, the organisations did not use the funds as intended.

While damning of the behaviour of the moderate Labor faction in particular, it also criticised the conduct of other factions within the Victorian branch.

Operation Watts makes 21 recommendations which the premier has promised to enact and so he should. They include the establishment of a joint house parliamentary ethics committee that is to promote and provide training about the statement of values and codes of conduct. It is to have the power to appoint members of the public to assist the committee in its work or to appoint a set number of members of the public to be committee members. It can only be hoped that no member of the public would have an affiliation or relationship, past or present, with a political party.

A parliamentary integrity commissioner, appointed by a cross-party parliamentary panel, is to be established as an independent officer of the parliament. Their duties are to include receiving and investigating complaints about possible non-criminal breaches of MPs’ code of conduct.

The parliamentary ethics committee and the parliamentary integrity commissioner are to pay particular attention to the role of leadership in nurturing ethical practices and to reinforce respect for the sovereign institution of parliament.

Another important recommendation is that an MP or minister would be guilty of an offence if they directed or permitted a person to conduct party-related duties while employed to assist in the discharge of public, taxpayer-funded roles.

Other recommendations include banning the hiring of close family members in an MP’s electoral office, amending the ministerial code of conduct so that it is clear to ministers that public resources must not be used for party-political purposes, and the reviewing of other relevant codes of conduct, all of which are to be made publicly available.

The findings of the Operation Watts report can only widen the trust deficit that exists between members of the Victorian community and its elected representatives. But its impact on the trust deficit will spread beyond that state. Operation Watts will be cited as yet another example of why MPs cannot be trusted to place the public interest before party and personal interests. It will also be used as a further example of the inability of many elected representatives to understand that public office is a public trust and a trust that must not be abused. It seems that too many MPs do not honour that principle or understand that failure to do so threatens our democratic political system as it sets a very low ethical standard for anyone serving or aspiring to be a party-affiliated MP.