By Casey Neill
Eildon MP Cindy McLeish says claims she misused electorate office staff are “laughable”.
Monbulk MP James Merlino announced on Sunday 29 July that he’d referred 18 Liberal and National Party MPs to Victoria Police for investigation for allegedly using electorate office staff for political campaigning during normal business hours.
He said the evidence provided to the police included “clear political campaigning by electorate office staff”.
“I have also requested that Victoria Police investigate the leave status of ministerial staff employed by the former Napthine Government during the 2014 Victorian election campaign,” Mr Merlino said.
“It’s clear that a significant number of Ministerial advisors did not take leave during the caretaker period and instead worked at the direction of then Liberal Party state director, and now convicted criminal, Damian Mantach.
“This allowed the Liberal Party to access taxpayer funded expenditure in the order of $2 million for the Liberals’ re-election campaign.
“The Liberal Party and National Party refused to have the behaviour of their own MPs investigated by the Ombudsman – they can no longer hide from that scrutiny.”
Ms McLeish said: “For 20 minutes this morning (Monday 30 July) James Merlino fronted the media and could not provide one single piece of evidence to support his claims.”
She said his accusation was “a laughable political stunt…coming from a government who has six ministers under police investigation”.
Ms McLeish was referring to Friday’s news that Victoria Police had launched a criminal investigation into the Labor Party’s ‘red shirt rorts’ – using $388,000 in parliamentary staff allowances to pay staff who were working full-time as ALP campaigners ahead of the November 2014 election.
“Victoria Police undertook reassessment of the material in relation to allegations of misuse of parliamentary budget entitlements to determine if further investigation was required,” a statement said.
“This assessment has now been completed and a formal investigation will now be conducted by the Fraud and Extortion Squad.
“As this is an active and ongoing investigation, it would not be appropriate to provide further comment at this time.”
Mr Merlino was among several ministers who benefited from these campaigners working in their offices.
