Key points
- Premier Daniel Andrews’ influential deputy chief of staff, Jessie McCrone, attends Labor’s 9am Friday campaign committee meetings about once a month.
- McCrone could be prevented from doing so under integrity changes designed to prohibit ministerial staffers from doing party-specific work during work hours.
- Some politicians and staffers from across the major parties described the changes as naive and puritanical and that it was common for staff of frontbench MPs to also be involved in their party’s election planning.
A proposed crackdown on political staffers using work time to campaign for their parties could put an end to the long-running practice of one of Premier Daniel Andrews’ top advisers sitting on a high-powered campaign committee.
Andrews’ influential deputy chief of staff, Jessie McCrone, attends Labor’s 9am Friday campaign committee meetings about once a month, but could be prevented from doing so under integrity changes designed to “explicitly prohibit a ministerial staff member from doing party-specific work during their employment”.
IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich and Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass speak about their two-year investigation into corruption in the Victorian Labor Party.Credit:Paul Jeffers
The meetings last for about an hour and the premier’s office said McCrone – dubbed Labor’s quasi campaign chief – took a combination of paid and unpaid leave for the duration. This is permitted under the existing codes of conduct, but a damning report by two watchdogs suggested a review of those codes to be worked through by a new parliamentary ethics committee.
Former treasurer John Lenders, whom the Ombudsman identified as the architect of the so-called red shirts rort, a scheme in which Victorian Labor repaid $388,000 after electorate officers did campaigning on taxpayer time, continues to sit on the same committee as McCrone.
Changes to the ways ministerial staff engage in party work were on Wednesday recommended by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and Victorian Ombudsman after a two-year investigation called Operation Watts. It was prompted by The Age and 60 Minutes reporting that revealed an industrial-scale branch stacking operation by former minister Adem Somyurek and his allies.
Recommendation 19 of the report recommended that “the Ministerial Staff Code of Conduct be reviewed to explicitly prohibit a ministerial staff member from doing party-specific work during their employment”.
When asked how recommendation 19 would apply to staffers who took leave during a work day to do campaign work, an IBAC spokeswoman said: “The details of recommendations such as Recommendation 19 and their impact on specific employment arrangements and conditions are expected to be worked through by the Department of Parliamentary Services and the new Parliamentary Ethics Committee in the months ahead.”
The government on Wednesday provisionally accepted all 21 recommendations put forward in the report, which uncovered a “catalogue of unethical and inappropriate behaviour” and “rampant nepotism” within the Victorian Labor Party.
Four Labor figures who either work in the government or have previously done so, all speaking anonymously to detail its inner workings, said McCrone was effectively the government’s “campaign manager” who dealt with party pollsters and researchers such as John Armitage’s firm QDOS. They said she often led campaign phone hook-ups and planned media messaging.
“She runs the campaign over four years, not four weeks,” one source said.
A government staffer said: “This is all during work hours.”
Adem Somyurek attempted to play down his role in Labor’s branch-stacking scandal, despite the damning findings.Credit:Paul Jeffers
An Andrews government spokeswoman did not respond to specific questions about the amount of leave McCrone took for political work and did not respond on the record about whether briefings from political researchers should be considered campaign work.
“All staff in the premier’s office take leave in accordance with the Ministerial Staff Code of Conduct as is appropriate,” the spokeswoman said.
The code of conduct for the approximately 90 staff in Andrews’ office states that “volunteering outside of work hours in a campaign role, including membership of campaign committee, is permitted”. But it says “ministerial staff should not undertake party political activities while using time off in lieu provisions. Party political work should be done outside of work hours, or while on annual or unpaid leave”.
Liberal leader Matthew Guy said the premier should have resigned over the findings of the report, but his office did not respond to a specific question about whether his own staff engaged in campaign work during work hours.Credit:Joe Armao
Integrity agencies are keen to separate the work of ministerial advisers from the task of electing the party their MP belongs to. Laws were changed in 2019 to ban electorate office staff working on campaigns in reaction to the red shirts rort.
The Operation Watts report noted that any new penalties for staffers engaging in party-specific work should consider “activities where it is difficult to separate the party-political aspect of the work” and “reasonable communication” between party officials and government staff. It said any penalties should be weighed against the degree of recklessness of the rule-breaking.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said Andrews should have resigned over the findings of the report, but his office did not respond to a specific question from The Age about whether his own staff engaged in campaign work during work hours.
“The Liberal Party actively encourages all staff and members to follow relevant workplace codes of conduct. The Liberal Party is supportive of the recommendations of Operation Watts,” a spokesman for the opposition said.
Guy said he would increase funding to IBAC and the Ombudsman, but denied the Liberal Party had any integrity issues – despite The Age and 60 Minutes previously exposing a branch stacking scheme within the party.
Centre for Public Integrity research director Catherine Williams said people paid by taxpayers should not do work that is not related to public functions, such as dealing with policy issues and other government business. She said using ministerial staff to win elections exacerbated the “incumbency effect”, which gave elected MPs an advantage over aspiring politicians who do not have public staff at their disposal.
“The problem goes right to the heart of the ethical use of public resources,” she said.
Several sources from Labor, the Coalition and the Greens said it was common for staff of frontbench MPs to also be involved in the party’s election planning.
Some politicians and staffers from across the major parties described the integrity agencies’ recommendations as naive and puritanical. They said the legally minded integrity chiefs didn’t understand the day-to-day realities of political offices.
“Every person employed by a politician is employed to get that politician elected. What is the crime IBAC is trying to solve here?” one Labor insider said, arguing an extreme scenario would see public servants with no political background working for ministers.
A Liberal source said staffers in the opposition’s offices also had ongoing involvement in election planning.
“This will impact Labor, the Libs, the crossbench, Fiona [Patten], everyone.”
A Greens spokeswoman said electorate office staff did no campaigning because the Parliamentary Administration Act barred them from doing so. However, the spokeswoman said there was nothing stopping staff members of Greens leader Samantha Ratnam from doing so.
IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich told the Australian Financial Review on Thursday he was “highly frustrated” that legal blockers were prohibiting him from publishing two other investigations into potentially corrupt conduct.
These include Operation Richmond, which is probing the Andrews government’s dealings with the United Firefighters Union, and Operation Sandon, which is examining property consultant John Woodman. Andrews has been interviewed for both investigations.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in Politics
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
