Victoria – the corrupt state
While many of us here in Australia are left aghast after spending any time doom-scrolling through the latest chaotic headlines from the Republican Administration in the United States, a far more immediate and flagrant brand of political decay is festering closer to home, in the state of Victoria.
It is a curious phenomenon of modern life that we are often more outraged by a tweet from Washington than by the systematic erosion of integrity in our own backyard, yet after twelve years of Labor government, the Garden State has become a case study in self-interest and institutionalised corruption.
Last week, Victoria’s Liberals and Nationals introduced a bill to give Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), the powers it has been asking for since 2017 – the power to follow the money and investigate $15 billion of corruption in the Big Build.
Labor however blocked its debate, shutting it down immediately and blocking any attempt at strengthening integrity.
How is it Victorians, who are our fellow Aussies, and who will vote again in November, have come to accept and even normalise this?
Last week, Labor voted against banning gangland figures and criminals from government construction sites.
Labor also just voted down laws to put a watchdog on government construction sites to investigate fraud, corruption and organised crime.
The Victorian premier and her government have time and again opposed a Royal Commission into the $15 billion spent on corruption under her watch. According to opposition figures, those involved in the corruption are also the Labor Party’s biggest donors, with recent political donation figures revealing Victorian Labor has taken $1.5 million from those wrapped up in this corruption scandal.
The sheer scale of the scandal surrounding Victoria’s “Big Build” infrastructure projects is difficult to fathom, with allegations that as much as $15 billion of taxpayer money has been rorted, wasted, or effectively handed over to criminal elements. This isn’t just a matter of bureaucratic incompetence or budget blowouts; this is a fundamental betrayal of public trust that has seen government construction sites allegedly become playgrounds for gangland figures while Labor knew and facilitated.
Memories
- Minister Adem Somyurek stood down after being accused of bullying
- In November 2016, Steve Herbert, then-member for Northern Victoria and the training and skills minister, quit cabinet for using his taxpayer-funded driver to chauffeur his two dogs
- In 2017, former Legislative Assembly Speaker Telmo Languiller and his deputy Don Nardella were found to have rorted an allowance for country MPs who have to stay in Melbourne during parliamentary sittings, prompting their resignations.
- The Red Shirts Scandal. A 2018 ombudsman investigation found 21 past and present Labor MPs breached parliamentary guidelines by wrongly approving $388,000 in taxpayer funds be spent on campaign staff before the 2014 election. The rort was subject to a police investigation spanning more than 12 months but no criminal charges were laid.
- Andrews declared a state of emergency in March 2020 as COVID locked down the entire country but as Victoria was cautiously reopening, cases leaked out of the state hotel quarantine system, sparking a second COVID-19 lockdown for Melbourne that ultimately ran for 112 days.
- More than 18,000 COVID-19 infections and 800 deaths can be traced back to private security guards who breached infection control procedures while working in the program.
- Dan Andrews, Labor ministers, bureaucrats and agency officials fronted a judicial inquiry into hotel quarantine breaches, but none said they could recall whose idea it was to use private security. The inquiry was unable to identify a single person responsible for the decision to hire the guards
- Mr Somyurek quit after Channel Nine aired allegations of branch stacking and a recording of him using offensive language about a ministerial colleague.
- His two allies, Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott, resigned from the ministry. All three deny wrongdoing.
- A subsequent report by the corruption watchdog and ombudsman exposed misuse of taxpayer resources but again did not recommend any criminal charges.
- Jacinta Allan confirmed lawyers were hired to provide advice on Victoria withdrawing from the Commonwealth Games on June 14 2023, a full month before the Games decision was announced.
- Allan then denied misleading Victorian parliament on June 13, when as the then responsible minister she told a budget estimates hearing the state was making “tremendous progress” on delivering the Games and gave no indication of budgetary concerns.
- The auditor-general later estimated that abandoning the event cost the state more than $589 million, including a $380 million settlement.
- A Queensland inquiry estimated up to $15 billion in taxpayer funds may have been lost to extortion, violence, bribery, and organised crime on Victorian building sites.
More to come, no doubt.
In a David and Goliath battle, Liberal MP Nicole Werner, is Victoria’s ‘David’ utilising her Instagram account as a digital front line to expose what she describes as a state-sponsored “rot.”
In a series of recent posts, Werner has unrelentingly criticised the Allan-Labor government, specifically highlighting the $15 billion she claims has been “poured into criminals’ hands” under the guise of infrastructure development.
Werner’s social media updates have become a rallying point for those frustrated by the government’s refusal to allow a Royal Commission into the Construction, Forestry and Martime Employees Union (CFMEU) and the wider construction sector.
In response, the defence mounted by the Labor apparatus has been one of total obstruction, shutting down debates and blocking integrity laws. Of course, their defensive posturing is arguably the most damning evidence of all; if there were nothing to hide, they would welcome the transparency of a Royal Commission rather than shielding their biggest donors and themselves from scrutiny.
The refusal to ban criminals from government sites or to establish a dedicated watchdog for construction fraud suggests a leadership that is no longer governing for the people, but rather for its own survival and the enrichment of its affiliates.
By treating Victoria’s treasury as a well for their political allies, Labor has created a system in which taxpayer funds are recycled into campaign donations, forming a closed loop of influence that heaps disdain on the average Victorian struggling with the cost of living.
The next election
When I ask my Victorian friends how the state continues to re-elect Labour, not one has said they ever voted for them, so one inevitably wonders how they’re re-elected.
Only 37 per cent of Victorian voters gave Labour their first preference in the 2022 election. The problem is that Victoria is currently the only jurisdiction left in Australia that uses Group Voting Tickets for its Upper House (Legislative Council).
In Victorian state elections, if you just put a “1” above the line, the party you voted for directs your preferences according to a list they filed with the commission weeks earlier. This often leads to ‘preference whispering,’ where candidates with tiny primary votes get elected through complex behind-the-scenes deals.
If you follow the instructions to just place a ‘1’ in a single box above the line, you are legally signing over your preferences to that party.
Meanwhile, apathy is the greatest ally of a corrupt incumbent. Labor relies on Victorians assuming the ‘other team’ is worse, or at least ‘no better’. But that misses a crucial point about the mechanics of a healthy democracy.
Accountability is not about finding a perfect replacement; it is about providing a consequence for egregious failure.
After twelve years, a government begins to view its power as an entitlement rather than a temporary mandate, and the resulting arrogance leads to the kind of flagrant misconduct Labor has proudly displayed and inflicted on Victorians.
You can’t thoroughly clean a house without first moving the furniture, and the first, most vital step toward restoring the integrity of Victorian institutions is removing the administration that allowed this rot to set in.
To allow this ‘mob’ to remain in power simply because of a lack of enthusiasm for the alternative is to signal that $15 billion in missing funds and criminal infiltration of the public sector are acceptable costs of doing business. They’re not.
This November, Victorians will have to look past the distractions of overseas politics and recognise that the most urgent fight for accountability is happening right here in Australia, and it begins by showing Victoria’s government the door.
Roger Montgomery is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management. Roger has over three decades of experience in funds management and related activities, including equities analysis, equity and derivatives strategy, trading and stockbroking. Prior to establishing Montgomery, Roger held positions at Ord Minnett Jardine Fleming, BT (Australia) Limited and Merrill Lynch.
He is also author of best-selling investment guide-book for the stock market, Value.able – how to value the best stocks and buy them for less than they are worth.
Roger appears regularly on television and radio, and in the press, including ABC radio and TV, The Australian and Ausbiz. View upcoming media appearances.
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