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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and a senior public servant have reportedly come under the scanner of anti-graft agency Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC). The IBAC has been investigating their role in controversial deals that benefitted the firefighters’ union and its boss Peter Marshall, reports state.
Quoting unnamed sources, the commission also questioned whether Mr Andrews was transparent in advising the Victorian public or his cabinet/caucus colleagues about his interventions in dealings with the United Firefighters Union (UFU).
Kalkine Media couldn’t independently verify the story.
Interactions between the state government led by Andrews and the union have been engulfed in controversies between 2014 and 2019 as firefighters’ union leader Peter Marshall sought to successfully influence an industrial deal and a reform package involving Victoria’s fire services to favour his union and its members.
The reports comes days after Gladys Berejiklian, ex-Premier of Australia’s most populous state – New South Wales (NSW) – announced her shock resignation, as her role was being investigated by the anti-graft body of NSW.
The Sydney-based provincial Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) had said in a statement that it will hold further public hearings as part of its ongoing probe, code-named as Operation Keppel, on October 18.
The probe has already heard that Berejiklian was once in a secret relationship with a state legislator who was under the radar of its corruption investigation.
