I have today referred a number of Liberal and National Party MPs to Victoria Police for investigation for allegedly using electorate office staff for political campaigning during normal business hours.
The evidence provided to the police includes clear political campaigning by electorate office staff of the following members and former members of the Parliament of Victoria:
| · Louise Asher | · Tim McCurdy | · Dee Ryall |
| · Richard Dalla-Riva | · Cindy McLeish | · Louise Staley |
| · Martin Dixon | · Elizabeth Miller | · Murray Thompson |
| · Bernie Finn | · Michael O’Brien | · Nick Wakeling |
| · Craig Ondarchie | · John Pesutto | · Graham Watt |
| · Neil Angus | · Inga Peulich | · Kim Wells |
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.
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.
Reviewed 19 August 2020