A Victorian State Labor MP has called for the Australian Federal Police and ASIO to investigate "covert" recordings of conversations in a Federal MP's office published by the Nine Network.
Key points:
- Victorian MP Tim Richardson said videos of powerbroker Adem Somyurek were secretly recorded in Federal MP Anthony Byrne's office
- Mr Byrne is the deputy chair of the powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security
- Branch-stacking allegations have already been referred to Victoria Police and IBAC
Both the Federal and Victorian Labor Party have been in damage control since The Age and 60 Minutes aired explosive accusations of branch stacking and recordings of Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek using misogynistic and homophobic language to describe his colleagues.
Mr Somyurek apologised for his offensive language but denied the branch-stacking allegations and was yesterday sacked from the Government and resigned his membership of the Australian Labor Party.
Robin Scott resigned as Victoria's assistant treasurer soon after.
The Andrews Labor Government has lost its third Cabinet Minister over the scandal this morning, after Marlene Kairouz resigned from her role as Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation and Minister for Suburban Development.
Both Mr Scott and Ms Kairouz deny any wrongdoing but said they wanted to step aside to avoid any distractions.
Tim Richardson, who hails from the same moderate Labor grouping as the dumped Mr Somyurek, said the recordings aired by the Nine Network were taken in the office of Federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne.
Mr Byrne, the member for Holt in south-east Melbourne, is the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.
Mr Richardson, the state member for Mordialloc, said the scandal was a "watershed" moment for the ALP for reform but was concerned about the secret recordings, given Mr Byrne was a member of a the powerful national security committee.
"We don't know who put those recordings in, we don't know what has been compromised," Mr Richardson said.
"That is a great concern for our Commonwealth and our national security.
"The notion that there is an unknown covert recording is a great concern on our democracy and on our sovereignty and that needs to be investigated by the Australian Federal Police, and if it's a national security risk, ASIO."
The ABC has requested comment from Mr Bryne and his office.
Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy yesterday referred the branch-stacking allegations to Victoria Police and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC).
Kevin Rudd calls for end to 'cancer' of factions
Many of the allegations centred around Mr Somyurek and his supporters filling Labor branches with factionally aligned members, a process known as branch stacking.
The process is not illegal, but is against Labor Party guidelines.
Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese yesterday vowed there would be a "proper examination" of the Victorian division of the party.
Labor's national executive is understood to be formulating its response to the allegations today.
It is understood Mr Albanese was pushing for party heavyweights Steve Bracks, who served as a Victorian Premier from 1999 to 2007, and long-serving federal deputy leader Jenny Macklin to head a review into the Victorian branch.
The push for the Labor figures to head the review has been met by scepticism from some, including state Shadow Attorney-General Ed O'Donohue, who said it was "deeply concerning".
Some Labor figures are demanding stronger action, pressing for full-scale federal intervention in the Victorian branch.
Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, who appeared on Sunday night's 60 Minutes program, called for the Labor Party to abolish the "cancer" of internal factions, but acknowledged it would cause "a bloody internal fight".
Mr Rudd has long blamed his ousting as prime minister in 2010 on the "faceless men" of the Labor Party.
"Factionalism is an enemy of our democracy and should be put to death," Mr Rudd told ABC Radio Melbourne this morning.
"They are simply the machinery in which talentless men … grubby their way to the top."
The former prime minister is now the president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and said it would be a challenge for the party to eliminate political branch stacking.
"The core element of the cancer … is the power of unelected factions. When you have unelected factions who exercise closet power, covert power, secret power, within political parties then it gives rise to these types of behaviours," he said.
"It's only if you disempower factional leaders that you remove the incentives they have to engage in the skullduggery we've seen in relation to Somyurek."
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2020-06-16 04:04:05Z
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