By Luke Voogt
Three Geelong MPs face a parliamentary inquiry into election funding rorts, opposition leader Matthew Guy has announced.
He said the coalition would call for an inquiry next week after Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass revealed on Tuesday that the ALP spent $388,000 of taxpayers’ money on its 2014 election campaign.
“The findings of the Ombudsman’s investigation are just the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Guy said.
“The public deserve to know exactly how much has been rorted and by which Labor MPs.”
More than 20 Labor MPs signed time sheets for electorate officers who were campaigning for party candidates in other electorates, the Ombudsman’s report found.
Lara MP John Eren paid $2358 for an electorate officer to campaign on behalf of Lisa Neville in her seat of Bellarine, the Ombudsman reported.
The officer, Jake Finnigan, blew the whistle on the funding arrangements in 2015, prompting the investigation.
Mr Finnigan told 3AW on Wednesday that he met Mr Eren only briefly but blowing the whistle left him jobless.
The government paid $20,559 to an electorate officer in upper house MP Gayle Tierney’s Geelong office, who was in fact campaigning for South Barwon Labor candidate Andy Richards.
The government spent $1 million in taxpayer funds challenging the Ombudsman’s investigation in the courts over following years.
Mr Guy accused the government of hindering the investigation “to cover up their rorting”.
He said the opposition would move for a Legislative Council Select Committee to “get to the bottom of it”.
Local coalition MP Simon Ramsay welcomed the committee, after this week calling for the Geelong MPs to resign their ministerial posts.
“People have lost trust and faith in all three of them,” the Member for Western Victoria said.
“If they all think this is going to go away next week they’ve got another thing coming.“
But Mr Eren accused the opposition milking the scandal for “political mileage“, given the Ombudsman noted the MPs acted in good faith.
To his understanding, the funding arrangement was extension of “pool staff” arrangements which both parties had used for more than 20 years.
The Ombudsman had described the guidelines for the funding as ambiguous and had already taken action to clarify them, he said.
But Mr Eren admitted the scandal was not a good look.
“It doesn’t pass the pub test,” he said. “The expectation of the community is totally different to what it was 20 years ago.”
Mr Eren pointed out that Premier Daniel Andrews had promised to pay the $388,000.
“I apologise, like the Premier has apologised, as to the way this has played out,” he said.
Mr Eren said he had expressed his doubts about the funding arrangement to the coordinator of the scheme, John Lenders who this week quit as chairman of the state’s major rail assets corporation VicTrack .
The coalition requires support from the Greens or the cross bench in the upper house to establish the select committee.
Of the three Geelong MPs, the committee can only compel upper house member Gayle Tierney to give evidence.
Mr Eren said he would refuse to be part of the opposition’s “political stunts” if the committee requested him to appear.
Ms Neville told the Indy she was not investigated by the Ombudsman “at any stage”.
