Camera IconFormer Victorian government minister Adem Somyurek says branch stacking was embedded within Labor. Credit: AAP
IBAC turns to Vic Labor's factional 'war'
Emily WoodsAAP
November 9, 2021 7:57AM
Branch stacking was embedded in Victorian Labor as an internal power war raged, disgraced MP Adem Somyurek has told a corruption hearing.
The Independent and Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission also heard another MP's father was paid but never expected to show up at the office that employed him.
Mr Somyurek quit Labor last year before he could be expelled following a Nine Network investigation, which allegedly caught him handing over cash and using parliamentary staff to create fake branch members.
During his second day of evidence, when asked if he believed branch stacking was part of his public duty as a minister and an MP, Mr Somyurek said it was "all sort of intertwined".
"It's not, strictly speaking, part of your brief as a minister and as a Member of Parliament, although the legislation isn't clear on that," Mr Somyurek said on Tuesday.
"It was so deeply embedded in the culture that it would be hard for people outside of the system to understand how embedded it is."
The inquiry heard St Albans MP Natalie Suleyman's father was employed in federal MP Anthony Byrne's office for factional reasons.
Mr Somyurek was accused of helping get Hakki Suleyman the job, although he did not show up to work in the office.
But Mr Somyurek denied there was a deal to get Mr Suleyman the job.
"I resented the fact that I had to do this, Anthony resented obviously having him," he said.
Discussion soon turned to factional wars within Labor, including a dispute between Mr Somyurek and former federal Labor Senator-turned lobbyist Stephen Conroy.
Mr Conroy's "quest to remain a power broker in the ALP" led to an internal power struggle within Moderate Labor, he said.
"This was before the left war, this was an internal war to get Conroy out of the picture," he said.
"Conroy declared war on me because he didn't want to relinquish power in a factional system, from the position of the lobbyist, so he started to attack me within the party.
"He was stacking, and then started stacking Ms (Marlene) Kairouz's seat to put pressure on Ms Kairouz."
In deleted messages shown to the inquiry, Mr Somyurek said to Mr Byrne: "I am going to win the war and it will be the end of (Deputy Federal Labor leader Richard) Marles and Conroy."
Asked why he deleted the messages, he said it was by accident and he kept photos of the message on his phone.
"I wasn't trying to hide them from IBAC," he said.
Mr Somyurek's evidence began on Monday, when he accused Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews of dismissing his concerns about Labor's red shirts scandal.
Red shirts was a $388,000 scheme involving the misuse of parliamentary allowances to pay Labor's political campaign staff ahead of the 2014 election.
Mr Somyurek described red shirts as "a gold standard rort".
Asked about the claims, Mr Andrews said Labor had made "a number of important rule changes" since the Victorian Ombudsman's investigation into the scheme.
He said the party was "deeply regretful" of the red shirts affair, had already accepted responsibility for it and that he would appear before IBAC if asked to.
No public hearings are scheduled for IBAC on Wednesday and Mr Somyurek will resume giving evidence on Thursday and Friday.
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