Why Are People Linking Daniel Andrews To A Corruption Inquiry?
The Victorian premier is reportedly under scrutiny from the state's anti-corruption body over his role in union dealings.
Just days after New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian resigned over an ICAC corruption inquiry, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is reportedly under scrutiny by the state’s own anti-corruption body — the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission — better known as IBAC.
According to The Age, the Victorian Premier’s role in controversial dealings involving the United Firefighters Union (UFU) and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) that benefited union secretary Peter Marshall is being examined by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).
So what is Dan Andrews’ alleged involvement, and how it will impact his position as Victorian Premier? There’s a lot to unpack here.
What Is The IBAC Investigation?
The fact that IBAC is investigating UFU dealings that allegedly benefited boss Peter Marshall dating back to 2014 is no secret and has been public knowledge since 2019.
However, reports that Dan Andrews’ conduct in the matter is being looked into is new information — and it’s important to note it has not been confirmed by IBAC, or Andrews himself thus far. According to The Age, “sources with knowledge of the investigation who are not authorised to comment publicly have confirmed that one aspect of the IBAC investigation involved scrutiny of the Premier’s actions.”
Additionally, the report claims that Andrews’ transparency in advising his cabinet, colleagues or the general Victorian public on his intervening in UFU matters has been drawn into question.
However, IBAC refused to confirm this on-record to The Age, or comment on its investigation at all. “As a matter of practice, IBAC does not comment on whether it has a complaint or investigation before it,” an agency spokesperson told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Dan Andrews was extremely careful with his wording in Wednesday’s press conference and directed all questions on the matter back to IBAC. “I will direct you to IBAC if you want to ask them questions about what they’re doing and not doing,” Andrews told reporters on Wednesday.
What Is IBAC?
IBAC is Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog. The commission is responsible for investigating, preventing and/or exposing corruption within the public sector and/or police force (including police misconduct). As the name suggests, IBAC is independent and is not influenced by the Andrews Government or any government body.
It covers both state and local government, Victoria Police, parliament, and the judiciary. This means it has jurisdiction over UFU members, and members of Parliament. You can read more about how the commission conducts its inquiries on the IBAC website.
So What Actually Happened?
The CFA and UFU have a long and rather tense history in Victoria, but the issue at hand really kicked off in 2014.
To put an extremely complex situation simply: the tension was over a pay dispute for the state’s paid CFA firefighters, which accounted for just 800 of the 60,000 total CFA firefighters at the time. However, lots of other issues, like the Fiskville report, added to tensions over working conditions at the time.
In February 2014, the UFU went to the Federal Court to seek the CFA’s implementation of a provision of a 2010 enterprise agreement that would employ an additional 342 career firefighters, employ a specific number of career firefighters per shift, and see them only perform certain tasks.
Ultimately, the Federal Court found this to be unconstitutional but noted that the CFA didn’t give an explanation as to why it had agreed to the 2010 provisions in the first place. This caused what was already some significant tension between the CFA and UFU to get way worse. The two organisations couldn’t reach a compromise on a new agreement and ultimately, the Fair Work Commission had to get involved to resolve the issues.
Ultimately, in June 2016, Fair Work commissioner Julius Roe handed down a number of non-binding recommendations that ruled in favour of the UFU. The CFA made it clear it did not accept the final recommendations, arguing that its concerns about discrimination, resource flexibility and the general best interest of volunteer firefighters were not met. This rejection meant that the decision was now up to Premier Daniel Andrews to either push the proposed agreement — which the CFA rejected — through cabinet, or continue negotiations.
By June 10, the Andrews Government announced it had accepted the Fair Work recommendations, but inserted additional clauses to protect the interests of volunteer firefighters. This prompted the resignation of Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett — who was a vocal critic of the UFU’s “outrageous” demands. James Merlino replaced her as Emergency Services Minister.
Not long after this, the Victorian Government moved to sack the CFA board at the height of the tensions, citing a lack of confidence in its ability to resolve the dispute and declining morale as the reason. The Andrews’ government’s handling of the situation was widely regarded by both volunteer firefighters and the opposition as a power grab for the UFU. Although it could be argued that government intervention in the dispute was the only way it would be resolved, the timing of the matter and the extent of the government’s involvement has been questioned.
This led to speculation that secret “promises” were made to the UFU by the Andrews Government — with UFU boss Peter Marshall telling the ABC in 2018 that “the truth will come out about Daniel Andrews.”
At the time, Marshall wouldn’t specify exactly what the alleged promises were, but that firefighters were promised “a better place” to work. Although there has been much speculation about secret tape recordings of alleged deals made by Dan Andrews, there is no evidence to support this.
IBAC has been investigating these alleged dealings between the UFU and the Victorian Government since 2019.
What Has Dan Andrews Said So Far?
For as long as allegations have been circulating, Dan Andrews and James Merlino have strongly denied any wrongdoing. In a press conference on Wednesday, Andrews refused to comment on whether or not he was even involved in the IBAC investigation, but asserted he has always done the right thing. “As for standards… I behave appropriately at all times. I’m focused always doing what is the appropriate thing to do,” he told reporters.
However, it’s worth noting that IBAC laws mean it can be an offence for people to confirm if they have been interviewed, or are under investigation, by the watchdog. It’s worth noting that Junkee is not alleging that Daniel Andrews has been interviewed, it is simply stating that he legally couldn’t confirm this if it were true.
This reflects comments made by Merlino back in 2018, in which he asserted that any pre-election pledges were above board, and that the opposition’s allegations could not be trusted. “There is nothing the opposition says on this matter that can be trusted,” he said. “We’ve had decades of conflict between management and its workforce and that’s a reflection of everyone.
“Everyone needs to look in the mirror in terms of the roles that they’ve played in fire services over many decades.”
Will Dan Andrews Resign?
Naturally, there have already been calls for Andrews to resign, with Shadow Attorney-General Tim Smith asserting that Andrews should follow in Berejiklian’s footsteps.
“The former premier of NSW resigned because she was under investigation by ICAC in NSW. The Premier of Victoria is under investigation by our anti-corruption commission, IBAC. Why hasn’t the Premier stood down?” Smith told the ABC.
But unlike Berejiklian, Andrews is yet to be publicly named in IBAC’s inquiry into the matter. So at this stage, we can’t even be totally sure he’s got a reason to step down. If Andrews is named in the IBAC investigation, that would be a different story, and we could see him take a similar path. But at this stage, we can only speculate.
However, it is worth noting that in a press conference on Wednesday, he dismissed any suggestions he is planning to resign. “I will not be doing anything other than my duty,” he said.