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SMH

Posted: 2018-03-21 05:12:11

But this ain’t over.

It’s true the Ombudsman did not refer anybody to the police, who have already looked at the affair and decided not to pursue it.

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The police attitude, that there was no indictable offence committed, means the case is unlikely to go back to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission – the state's anti-rorting  watchdog.

Glass found the 11 Labor MPs implicated in the scandal who are still in the Parliament acted “in good faith” and did not personally benefit from the rorting.

That was greeted as a get-out-of-jail card for a government with a Parliamentary majority of just one, that feared political fatalities from this thing.

Andrews also has made it clear that there will be no party heads rolling.

The bloke who comes out of the report looking the worst, former Treasurer John Lenders whose conduct was savaged by Glass, made himself scarce from his $90,000 job with VicTrack a couple of weeks ago, putting himself beyond retribution.

Daniel Andrews celebrates his election win in November 2014.

Daniel Andrews celebrates his election win in November 2014.

Photo: Scott Barbour

All of that means Labor people are hopeful that the worst of this scandal is behind them

And that’s because the rules governing the spending of public money by Parliamentarians, or the "guidelines" to give them their official title, are so weak, wishy-washy and hard to understand that one of Labor’s excuses was that it didn’t know it was doing the wrong thing.

Another way to look at it is that the "guidelines" allow an outfit to rort nearly $400,000, use it to help win an election and then get off on a technicality.

But Labor isn’t out of the woods yet.

People outside the political-media-Spring-Street bubble, the people who vote,  are watching all of this and they’ll remember that Labor has form; the dogs driven around in the ministerial car, the two blokes caught rorting their residency allowance and now this.

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Matthew Guy and his Liberal Opposition were vowing on Wednesday that they won’t let this go, and nor should they.

It’s unlikely the Coalition can force resignations, but they’ll use the “red shirts” scandal to their utmost political advantage, maybe even teaming up with the Greens in the upper house to try to have Labor MPs temporarily booted out.

Andrews said on Wednesday that he’s going to work on clearing up the rules, as per the Ombudsman’s recommendations.

That’s an old story from this government; every time someone’s been sprung with their fingers in the cookie jar, the rules get tightened, it seems.

But Deborah Glass has a better idea.

She wants an independent body, able to investigate politicians “without fear or favour”, the type of outfit to inspire fear and respect among MPs and that might enforce real consequences for dipping into the public purse.

Now, wouldn’t that be a relief.

Noel Towell

Noel Towell is State Political Editor for The Age

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