Revelations that Premier Jacinta Allan’s own government sat on a secret corruption review for more than six months, with Labor MPs blaming “bureaucracy and interference,” show exactly why Family First says the Big Build cannot investigate itself — and why Victoria needs an independent royal commission.
The Herald Sun has revealed that a secret review ordered to clean up Big Build worksites, conducted by respected former VicRoads boss John Merritt and involving unions and industry, took more than six months to be put into action. Labor MPs have told the paper the reforms were delayed “with bureaucracy and interference,” with ministers now bypassing the Premier’s own office just to get basic changes through.
“A secret review sat on a shelf for six months while bikie-linked contractors kept winning government work. Labor MPs are now telling journalists their own Premier’s office is the problem. If the government can’t even implement its own review, how can anyone trust it to investigate itself?”
It is the latest in a string of Big Build scandals emerging almost weekly. Just last week, it was revealed how bikie-linked brothers profited from a prison expansion and a social housing project the Premier opened herself. In June, Ms Foreman called for a royal commission after former IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich and former Ombudsman Deborah Glass both said only a royal commission could expose the full scale of corruption on the $109 billion program. A month on, the scandals keep coming — and now it is Labor’s own MPs confirming the government’s response is being smothered from within.
“Every week it’s a new scandal on the Big Build. Bikie brothers one week, a buried review the next. This isn’t bad luck, it’s a pattern. Jacinta Allan can’t keep telling Victorians to trust a process her own MPs say is being killed by bureaucracy and interference.”
On Sunday, before the latest revelations, Ms Allan rejected calls for a royal commission, claiming it would mean “delayed action, not immediate action.” Family First says the Herald Sun’s reporting proves the opposite is true — it is Ms Allan’s own government that has spent six months delaying action on its own review.
“The Premier says a royal commission would delay action. Her own government sat on its own review for six months and had to be dragged into acting by internal revolt. Every week the government self-investigates is another week a new scandal breaks. Victoria has run out of patience for Labor marking its own homework.”
Family First says Victorians cannot afford three more years of a government that buries its own reviews and denies royal commissions while a new scandal breaks almost every week. Ms Foreman is urging Victorians to use their vote in November to elect a strong Family First voice in the Legislative Council — one that will hold government to account and force the royal commission Labor has refused to deliver.
“Victoria needs checks and balances, not another Labor government marking its own homework. A strong Family First voice in the Legislative Council will back a royal commission into the Big Build and make sure public money is spent on families, not covered-up failures.”
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