Victoria’s ombudsman has found no evidence that the premier, Daniel Andrews, “designed, propagated or facilitated” the so-called “red shirts” scheme that saw almost $400,000 in public funds misused during the 2014 election campaign.
In a report tabled in parliament on Thursday, the state’s ombudsman, Deborah Glass, said she was “not prepared to spend further public resources on these matters”.
“Is there anything else to investigate? The short answer is no,” Glass said in the report.
“Despite assertions to the contrary, there is no persuasive evidence the premier designed, propagated or facilitated the scheme.”
In 2018 Glass found Labor misused $388,000 through an arrangement that involved 21 Labor MPs signing off on wages to be paid to casual electorate officers, who were actually working as campaign organisers during the 2014 election.
The former treasurer, John Lenders, was singled out in the ombudsman’s investigation, which identified him as the architect of the scheme. Lenders this week stood down from Labor’s campaign committee.
The Labor party repaid the money and police did not lay charges, though they raided the homes of 17 former campaign staff at dawn.
The matter was largely considered settled until 2020, when allegations of branch stacking were levelled against the Labor factional powerbroker Adem Somyurek. He was dumped from cabinet and quit the party.
A joint investigation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the ombudsman – dubbed Operation Watts – found Somyurek’s moderate faction misused public funds. During the investigation, the MP repeatedly made allegations about other factions and referenced the red shirts scheme.
Somyurek, who last week said he had done “absolutely nothing wrong” and felt “liberated” by the Operation Watts findings, told public hearings that Lenders “came up with the scheme” and the premier was aware of it.
Earlier this year Somyurek successfully passed a motion in parliament’s upper house to refer the scheme back to the ombudsman.
“[Andrews] designed this system,” Somyurek told parliament at the time. “He told me personally, ‘You’ve got to take part in this process whether you want to win or not,’ and that reflected his mentality at the time.”
Glass said the evidence showed Andrews was “involved and immersed in the Red Shirts campaign in 2014, as he necessarily would have been as party leader”.
“However, there was no evidence he was aware of what I described in my report as the artifice: the manner in which Mr Lenders had proposed the field organisers would divide their activities and be paid in a split fashion by both the ALP and parliament,” she wrote.
Glass said “other than unsupported claims made by Mr Somyurek”, there was no new evidence indicating the premier’s involvement in the scheme since her 2018 report.
“It is time to end this debate,” she wrote. “I cannot, of course, rule out that further evidence may yet come to light, but with the passage of time and difficulty in proof I am not prepared to spend further public resources on these matters.”
Andrews on Thursday said he was “focused on the future” and would let the ombudsman’s report speak for itself.
“These matters have been well canvassed,” he told reporters.
But the opposition has seized on the report and Andrews’ comments backing Lenders as a person of the “highest integrity”.
“When it comes to Daniel Andrews it’s always someone else’s fault, he’s in charge but never held to account,” opposition government scrutiny spokesperson Louise Staley said in a statement.
“Instead of acting to clean up his grubby party, Daniel Andrews continues to defend and promote the mastermind behind a $388,000 theft of taxpayers money.”
Glass noted Somyurek had “changed his version of events” between his appearance before Ibac and his 2022 speech at parliament and he would not hand over emails he said supported his claims.
The report also reveals Somyurek refused to provide the evidence he gave publicly to police when he was contacted by a detective in November 2021.
“It would be a breach of the parliamentary privilege of freedom of speech for me to question Mr Somyurek’s motives or credibility,” Glass wrote.
“I refrain from comment and allow the evidence, presented in its entirety, to speak for itself.”
Glass said while her jurisdiction does not extend to Victoria police, she believed their 2018 operation, including the dawn arrests, “was a mistake”.
“That these issues continue to loom large in the public consciousness as an example of unpunished wrongdoing is a product of many factors, including the police operation in 2018,” she said.
“But it is also a product of the unsatisfactory state of the law in relation to the misuse of public funds, and an inadequate system for investigating and sanctioning MPs who break the rules.”
Glass said it was “a pity” senior members of Victoria police did not intervene to stop the arrests and suggested they apologise.
“It is not clear why MPs were not treated in the same, allegedly heavy-handed, fashion as their staffers,” Glass said.
“It may relieve the sense of unfairness that at least some of those arrested must have felt, if senior police command would acknowledge this and apologise to them.”
Victoria police said it would not apologise for making the arrests.
“Victoria Police acted appropriately when arresting the 17 former field officers,” it said in a statement.
“It is not uncommon for simultaneous arrests to occur where there are multiple persons of interest in an evolving investigation.”
Other issues – including whether the public service has become politicised, the work of the premier’s social media unit staff and the “new trend” of factional powerbrokers working as lobbyists – will be the subject of an upcoming report from Glass.
