IBAC Victoria hearings LIVE updates Adem Somyureks final day in witness box

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The public hearings running this week are part of an inquiry called Operation Watts into allegations of corrupt conduct involving Victorian public officers, including members of parliament.

Friday’s hearing will be the final one after five weeks of grillings.

The investigation is run jointly by the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Ombudsman and its remit includes allegations of branch stacking in the Victorian Labor Party, as first revealed in an investigation by The Age and 60 Minutes last year.

Branch stacking is an organised method of accumulating internal power in a party by recruiting, and usually paying the fees for, new members.

But it’s much more pointed than just that. The real question is whether public officers, including Victorian members of parliament, are engaging in corrupt conduct by directing ministerial or electorate office staff to perform party‐political work when they should instead be doing ministerial or electorate work.

It will also look at whether public money given by the Victorian government as grants to community associations, has been redirected and misused to fund party‐political activities, or for any other improper purposes. It will ask if ministers or others involved in granting the funds have “dishonestly performed their functions” or “knowingly or recklessly breached public trust”.

The inquiry will look into whether any public officer, their families or their associates, received a personal benefit from these things, and looks at what systems and controls are in place to monitor these money flows.

The hearing is expected to go for at least four weeks. It’s overseen by IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich, QC, and run by counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC.

Adem Somyurek is being quizzed on withdrawing cash from ATM and handing money and ALP membership forms over to Labor staffer Nick McLennan, as captured on footage by The Age and 60 Minutes investigation.

Mr Somyurek told IBAC some factional operatives were “apprehensive” about COVID-19 and therefore he took it upon himself to lodge ALP membership forms and withdraw the cash. He admitted to paying for people’s membership.

However, in an intercepted phone call between Mr Somyurek and factional heavyweight Andrew Landeryou two days after the media expose, the duo are hatching a plan to justify why he was paying for people’s membership and handing over cash to Mr McLennan.

“There are any number of explanations that are quite OK but it boils down to the forms had to be lodged by a certain time and you were lodging them,” Mr Landeryou said.

Mr Somyurek responded: “Or the gentleman that received the money could not leave his house because of coronavirus … yeah, that’s probably better one.“

Mr Landeryou said: “And you could have and you could have gone and visited to collect the cash but during [the pandemic] you’ve been very paranoid about it and you thought it’s much better to go to the ATM. There’d be no chance, there’d be much less chance that money out of a sort of automatic dispenser is going to be sort of contaminated than some random you didn’t know.”

Mr Somyurek told IBAC he did not use the line others had paid and acknowledged he had paid on behalf of people, and that was an important consideration in the context of the phone call.

Hearings have adjourned until 2.45pm, after which the final session of IBAC Operation Watts public hearings will commence.

Tarneit MP Sarah Connolly, and her allies at the Transport Workers Union, enlisted the help of Adem Somyurek to branch stack to protect her preselection against factional rivals, IBAC has heard.

Mr Somyurek told IBAC he was concerned with two objectives in late 2019: to protect the coalition of the Right faction, and protect Ms Connolly in her safe Labor seat.

Jasvinder Sidhu with Daniel Andrews.Credit:Photo: VISPENN Photography

He said Jasvinder Sidhu was stacking branches in the western suburbs with a view of knocking out Ms Connolly during preselection.

“She’s got to protect herself, essentially, she’s going to be over run,” Mr Somyurek said.

Although Ms Connolly was with the Transport Workers Union, and not Mr Somyurek’s Moderate Labor, the union was closely aligned to the faction.

A 20-year-old staffer whose only work experience was working part-time at a pet shop earned $95,000 while working as an electorate officer for Adem Somyurek.

Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC, asked Mr Somyurek whether that man with very little experience was worth the $95,000 yearly salary paid by taxpayers.

“I always wanted a Turkish speaker in the office, people around who I could trust, and I was teaching him how to work, and he was getting feedback,” Mr Somyurek said.

Mr Carr contended the former minister needed a Turkish-speaking staff in his office to “manage the body of Turkish [ALP] members that your office was running”.

Mr Somyurek said he wasn’t managing the Turkish members, but agreed that could be one of the reasons, and the other reason was because there was a large Turkish constituency in his electorate.

Adem Somyurek broke down while talking about his parents at IBAC.

Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC, was asking about audio Mr Somyurek leaked of his factional opponent Jasvinder Sidhu making racist remarks.

Jasvinder Sidhu with Daniel Andrews.Credit:Photo: VISPENN Photography

“He’s basically saying my parents commitment to Australia, they’re doing all the hard labour, they were labourers, they weren’t skilled migrants,” Mr Somyurek said.

“He was pitting skilled migrants like the Indians against people like my parents who came here as labourers and helped build Australia.”

He had to turn off his camera after he got teary. The hearings have been adjourned for five minutes.

Mr Somyurek said he directed taxpayer-funded staff to work on trying to bring down factional opponent Jasvinder Sidhu.

In a recording played at IBAC, Mr Somyurek is heard saying: “I’ve told [a staffer] to email stuff. I’m gonna get them to write a submission charging Jasvinder whose case is coming up soon.”

“Make them f------ work, they’re not gonna be sitting around again.”

Mr Somyurek told IBAC he accepted he directed taxpayer-funded staff to work on factional activities, but that it would have been in between work.

Text messages between former staffers Michael de Bruyn and Nick McLennan, obtained by IBAC, had discussed an online factional catch up in which the group were to discuss the internal complaint about Mr Sidhu.

Mr de Bruyn texted Mr McLennan: “Adem wants to get everyone doing stuff.”

Commissioner Robert Redlich said “all” Labor staffers interviewed by IBAC said they were doing significant amounts of factional work during their taxpayer-funded working days and there was “very little in the way of electorate duties being performed”.

In the four years to June 2020, Adem Somyurek spent $1 million in his wages bills at his electorate office.

Former Supreme Court judge and current IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich.

“You were using your full entitlement at all material times to have 2.5 employees engaged in your electorate office, together with a large number of casual staff, and that between them they all were doing a significant amount of factional work,” Mr Redlich told Adem Somyurek.

The former minister over the past four days has insisted there was not a lot of factional work to do, dismissing the “overwhelming evidence” presented to IBAC.

In a text message between former staffers Adam Sullivan and Nick McLennan, obtained by IBAC, the duo complain about the level of factional work directed by Mr Somyurek.

Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC, contended that, given what electorate officers were doing in Mr Somyurek’s office, “spending $1 million over four years is a breach of the requirement to provide value for money in using work-related parliamentary allowances and in budget, and a breach of the obligation to act ethically, reasonably and in good faith. That’s what I’m putting to you”.

Mr Somyurek responded: “I commented on that before. I reject it.”

Tarneit MP Sarah Connolly told Adem Somyurek not to worry about an impending Age and 60 Minutes investigation if it was solely focussed on Labor staffers whose primary role was to branch stack.

In the lead up to the June 2020 investigation, Mr Somyurek called Ms Connolly about the promo and said he did not know what the expose would focus on.

Tarneit MP Sarah Connolly.Credit:Victorian Parliament

“I’ve got no f---ing idea, it might be that I’ve got ethnics in my office, and you know branch stackers in my office and their primary role is to branch stack. The only allegation he put to me is ‘have you paid for anyone’s membership?’ and I said ‘no’. He hasn’t come back to me with any allegations at all, so [I] wouldn’t have a clue,” Mr Somyurek told Ms Connolly, according to tapped phone calls.

Ms Connolly responded: “Well, I mean, big f---en, that’s not hardly a story … Like the party just shrugged its shoulders at that.“

In another tapped recording, fellow MP Robin Scott told Mr Somyurek he had uncovered what the media investigation would focus on, describing it as “pretty lame”.

“[It’s about] branch stacking, electorate officers involved who are publicly funded, corrupting the Labor Party, people benefitting, holding positions of trust, three ministers who are involved and benefit from branch stacking, people being elected into parliament making laws who benefit from this corrupt practice,” Mr Scott said.

In response, Mr Somyurek laughed.

Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC, told Mr Somyurek: “[You] lost your moral compass as to why that is wrong.”

The former Andrews government minister told IBAC: “If you’re going to say there are good guys and bad guys based on this stuff, regarding the Labor Party, Mr Carr, there are no good guys in the Labor Party, I can tell you that,” Mr Somyurek said.

MP Adem Somyurek has continued to insist employing factional operatives in taxpayer-funded jobs is not a “misappropriation of funds”.

The former minister said there were “grey areas”.

“Commissioner, this is the concern I have now, because you’re restrained from looking at other people, and you don’t know whether this is widespread, and if this is common practice or not,” Mr Somyurek said.

Adem Somyurek appears as a witness at the Operation Watts IBAC inquiry. 

The debate about whether it is legal for staffers to perform factional work has been a constant theme of the IBAC hearings. After the red shirts affair, the Andrews government changed state laws to ban electorate officers engaging in campaign elections during work hours, but the rules did not explicitly ban factional work outside of elections.

Mr Somyurek said the language should change around the definition of the “entitlements” of members of Parliament, to prevent “grey areas”. He said he doubted politicians would have the appetite to undertake that legislative reform given they were the beneficiaries of those entitlements.

Commissioner Robert Redlich has asked whether Mr Somyurek believed using taxpayer-funded staff for factional purposes was part of his duties as a member of Parliament.

“That’s what the political class will tell you, and that’s a common view [among] most politicians,” Mr Somyurek responded.

Mr Redlich asked whether the public would be shocked by that revelation, and suggested legislative reforms would be required to tighten the rules around what activities staffers can undertake.

Mr Somyurek said: “I think the public are pretty cynical about politicians, so even when red shirts came out, they didn’t sort of pay attention. But I get your point, I think this is a debate that really does need to happen and be settled once and for all.”

Former Labor staffers were “visibly distressed” giving evidence in private hearings about what they did while employed as electorate and ministerial advisers, according to counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC.

Mr Carr said one junior staffer working in Marlene Kairouz’s office told investigators: “I always knew I was on the taxpayer dollar. I knew that it wasn’t right. I knew that it’s not what we’re employed to do.

You had to do it because of your job or she would not hire you or have you in there. And it wasn’t why I wanted to be there, and I didn’t enjoy it, and dealing with Adem was not pleasant.“

Adem Somyurek disagreed with that assessment.

While, former Labor staffer Jacob Cripps told investigators he was doing factional work because he was “going to do whatever senior members of government tell me what to do”.

Adem Somyurek is back for a final day as a witness in a public anti-corruption commission investigation.

IBAC has played an intercepted phone call between Mr Somyurek, Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott a day before the 60 Minutes and Age Faceless Man investigation that blew the lid on the Moderate Labor faction.

Mr Somyurek was heard saying he was worried the investigation would trigger an IBAC investigation.

Ms Kairouz responds: “Well, let it be before IBAC.“

Mr Somyurek said: “F---. No, it’s pretty bad.“

Counsel assisting Chris Carr, SC told Mr Somyurek he had recognised what he had engaged involved in was “pretty bad”.

The former Labor minister refuted that characterisation, and said he was concerned about appearing before IBAC because it was “pretty bad” for a cabinet minister to appear before the anti-corruption commission regardless of whether he had done something wrong.

In the tapped call, Ms Kairouz is heard saying: “What I’ve done and what Robin’s done, if that’s what it is, what have you done? Well, seriously, what the f--- have you done?”

Mr Somyurek responded: “Yeah, well that’s true … well it’s got to be misappropriation of funds.“

The upper house MP told IBAC he was attempting to deduce what journalists had uncovered, and when he found out the anti-corruption commission was investigating, he had presumed IBAC would be focused on the misappropriation of funds, not internal ALP rules.

IBAC has faced weeks of criticism from some media commentators and the opposition, who have attacked the focus on Somyurek’s faction and urged IBAC to look into other Labor groups and call Premier Daniel Andrews to address allegations he also branch stacked and was warned about the red shirts rort.

After lunch on Thursday, IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich said the calls for other political actors to be called were misguided because IBAC was constrained by its underpinning legislation, which only allows it to compel witnesses “relevant to the misconduct of the individuals under investigation”.

Adem Somyurek and Premier Daniel Andrews.Credit:

He claimed Andrews government reforms in 2020 â€" which he said IBAC objected to â€" added to the “significant limitation” on IBAC to hold public hearings. “ICAC in NSW and CCC in QLD are not constrained in the same way … Those constraints, if they are to be addressed, need to take place through legislative reform,” he said.

The eminent former judge’s set-piece was defensive and could be read as a tacit acknowledgement that the inquiry’s scope either could, or should, have been wider. Or, it may have been a rebuke of unhelpful media barracking. It was definitely a plea to the government to give the agency more teeth.

Either way, it means Victorians may never learn if the practices that have been aired over the past few weeks are widespread across the entire Labor Party or confined to one faction.

Read the full piece here.

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