The Victorian Parliament is investigating claims that state Labor MPs siphoned off hundreds of thousands of dollars from their printing budgets to pay for ALP memberships.
"Three anonymous ALP whistleblowers" told News Corp’s Herald Sun that at least two printing companies were involved in the scheme, taking a cut of between 3%-10% of a job’s budget then returning most of the money to MP’s offices. It’s alleged that in some cases a handful of brochures would be printed and attached to fake invoices for bigger jobs.
The allegations led to heated scenes at State Parliament in Melbourne.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy asked Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews whether FM Printing of Keilor East had been used by Labor MPs to "fraudulently produce invoices for printing they haven't done" to siphon-off taxpayer money to pay for ALP memberships.
Andrews said in reply that no one would take "lectures on probity" from Mr Guy. "You eat the food of organised crime. You drink the wine of organised crime. You've got no place lecturing people about crime," Andrews told the Opposition Leader.
Guy then asked whether it was true that upper house deputy president Khalil Eideh had been using FM Printing to generate false invoices "which have defrauded Victorian taxpayers.” Andrews said anyone with information about wrongdoing should go to police.
The allegations are now being investigated by the Victorian Parliament. Upper house President Bruce Atkinson said he had begun reviewing printing invoices in response to claims that up to $30,000 a year had been siphoned off from one MP's printing allowance.
"If the article is accurate, then the allegations are deeply disturbing to me," said Atkinson. "If the allegations are true, they involve criminal actions and constitute fraud. I have already begun a review of printing invoices and we will pursue other lines of inquiry."