Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (16:01): A report came across my desk the other day, and it was the first time I had sat down to have a really good read of it. When I was reading it, if I did not know the title, I would have thought it was simply a DNA plan of the Victorian Labor Party. That is what it was: it described everything that is wrong with the Labor Party here in Victoria. But it was not a DNA result; it was Operation Richmond, an IBAC report into the behaviours of what this government see as okay ‍– things that they think are all right to do whilst in office in government. It is a key sign of where the arrogance began, and now Victorians are paying the price. I will go through some of the quotes that are in there, which I think are very interesting reading. I think it starts off actually quite well:

… IBAC found serious and concerning conduct by senior public officers, including ministers, members of Parliament and public servants …

IBAC found that senior members of government acted contrary to established policies, procedures, codes of conduct and conventions in negotiating a deal with the Secretary of the United Firefighters Union, Mr Peter Marshall …

We can go back to when this was happening at the time and we were asking questions of the then Premier Daniel Andrews – specific questions about what he was doing with that secretary. It was interesting because he never once would actually mention that secretary’s name – not once did he mention that name. The report goes on to say:

The matters investigated in Operation Richmond may have occurred some time ago, but the corruption risks and vulnerabilities highlighted – improper influence, failures in ministerial conduct, failures by senior public servants to act impartially and the politicisation of appointment processes for public sector boards – are serious and persist –

let us get this right; it is not finished –

in Victoria’s public sector.

This is a government that think they can do what they want when they want. What Operation Richmond highlights is the need for the government to take decisive action, and we know that since then no action has been taken at all. Even in the overview when it comes to what happened with Operation Richmond there are some things in relation to the negotiations with the CFA EBA:

… the Premier authorised the Special Minister of State, Mr Gavin Jennings, to commence negotiations directly with the UFU without the knowledge or involvement of the CFA or other parties (the ‘undisclosed negotiations’).

And who was it who was put in a position to do that, Deputy Speaker? I reckon you would probably know, and I know, because it is a very, very good friend of the current Premier:

Mr Tony Bates, a Deputy Secretary at DPC, was enlisted to assist. Private meetings were held with the UFU in rented meeting spaces and a hotel.

Now, I do not go and organise meetings that are private and okay in a hotel unless, maybe, we are hiding something – unless we are trying to get away with something.

In a lawfully intercepted telephone call on 22 March 2019, Mr Marshall gave an account of the origin of the EBA to a ministerial advisor: ‘this agreement was negotiated with fuckin’ Jennings in a back room. It was endorsed by fuckin’ Andrews and Cabinet’.

That language is in the report. That is the stuff that is here –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I think I can pre-empt the point of order. I appreciate the language may be in the document you are referring to, but it is still unparliamentary, and repeating it is not in order.

Brad BATTIN: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. I will repeat it as many times as it is in the IBAC report, because I am quoting from a document and this document is about the way that this Labor government have treated the Victorian community. IBAC found that the actions of the Premier, Minister Jennings and Mr Bates over this period were contrary to government policy, procedures and convention and their respective codes of conduct. And what action did we see? What action have we seen from Mr Bates organising these meetings? We saw him promoted to the position of Secretary of the Department of Education by none other than the current Premier here in Victoria. The report says:

… Mr Marshall was resistant to any material changes to the terms of the CFA EBA –

during these discussions –

that he had shaken hands on with Minister Jennings. Mr Marshall insisted that his deal be honoured under threat of further industrial action or public disclosure of the undisclosed negotiations …

You have to ask: why would the government be fearful of the undisclosed negotiations getting out unless of course it was corrupt? That is the reason this operation originally began. It has not even got all of the details in here. It misses some of the phone calls that were happening between an MFB CEO and the minister at the time, who was the Minister for Emergency Services. It misses some of the conversations that were had, particularly with Lisa Neville, who was in the cabinet at the time. The report says:

In May 2016, during the conciliation for the CFA EBA at the FWC, Minister Jennings and Mr Bates continued to mislead their colleagues at the CFA and IRV by failing to divulge undisclosed negotiations and the deal … with Mr Marshall.

The sad part about this is there is one person that does not have the opportunity to defend themselves on this now. In June 2016 Minister Garrett resigned, prompted by her refusal to sign an EBA which she considered unacceptable. Mr James Merlino became the new Minister for Emergency Services, and let us be honest, he was just a lapdog to the Premier. He became the emergency services minister when the CFA board refused the proposed EBA, citing legal and operational barriers. We know how quick Labor are to say that they do not get involved in the operational decisions of the police or the fire services or emergencies. But on this one, Minister Merlino dismissed the board for saying that. After a further review of the EBA by a newly constituted CFA board, the CFA board approved the EBA in August 2016 – another group of people that should hang their heads in shame. They were appointed for one reason only. It was not on behalf of the volunteer firefighters across Victoria, and it was not on behalf of safety here in Victoria; it was on behalf of Peter Marshall, who got his way yet again and continues to today.

Negotiators for the MFB EBA, according to the MFB CEO’s evidence to IBAC, had similar concerns about the terms proposed in their EBA. Ultimately, to resolve the dispute, the government appointed new members to the MFB board who understood the government’s preferred position on the MFB EBA and reassured board members that the consequences of implementing the MFB EBA could be managed through a side agreement. So this is after we have gone through the proposal and the board says they do not want it. The new board came on and said they still did not want it. They said, ‘Don’t stress, Peter Marshall. We know that you’ve obviously got something over us. We’ll continue, and what we’ll do is we’ll put a little side deal in so you can get what you want.’ At the end of the day, we are not talking about community safety, we are talking about the union getting whatever they want.

Then came the establishment of Fire Rescue Victoria. During these negotiations, IBAC found that Mr Marshall sought to shore up a crossbench member’s support for the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2019 by employing the MP’s relative in the days prior to the vote on the bill in the Legislative Council in June 2019. In a lawfully intercepted phone call, yet again, on 7 June 2019, Mr Marshall discussed the employment offer, telling a friend:

… [the MP] is 100 per cent behind us … just to make sure we just employed …

How is that not corrupt? How is it not corrupt to ring up a member of Parliament and promise, ‘I will employ someone from your office in exchange for a vote.’ It is just like a brown paper bag, but effectively they have used a staff member to do it through. It is 100 per cent corruption, and if IBAC cannot see that is corruption, that is another problem. But for a member of Parliament to trade off employment within the union to get through a decision, that is corruption – 100 per cent no-holds-barred corruption – and that is what this government has continuously got away with for so long.

Finally, during this period, IBAC also found evidence that MFB board member Mr Greg Sword shared confidential information with Mr Marshall in 2019 in breach of his professional obligations, and again from this, no-one seemed to be responsible for anything. Again, we have got another report highlighting corruption in Labor and highlighting corruption in the people they employ, and yet no-one seems to get any penalties from it. You would have to ask why. Why is it that we continue to have these problems here in this state where corruption is highlighted? This corruption that began back in 2015 and 2016 has led through to what we are seeing today with over $15 billion on our Big Build sites through corruption going to the CFMEU.

‘Corruption risks and recommendations for reform’ – some of the things in here even go further:

Mr Marshall was able to extract concessions from the government under the threat of industrial action and negative media coverage and public exposure of the undisclosed deal …

IBAC also identified instances of ministers behaving contrary to government policy, procedures and conventions, which undermined the government’s regulatory coverage and facilitated Mr Marshall’s influence over the government …

We have also heard the Premier come out now talking about the fact that integrity is not negotiable under his government, yet he has had plenty of time to read this report now, and I note – I have followed the media pretty closely since the new Premier has been here – not once has he suggested that Mr Bates is getting the flick. Not once has he suggested that Mr Bates will be held accountable for his actions very specifically outlined in this document. No, I think one of two things will happen: Mr Bates will come back and they will try and forget it, or he will get a golden handshake and they will give him a little reference and they will try and push him off somewhere – a good character reference. I think there is a minister on that side that is pretty good at writing some references for people that do not deserve them.

The report goes on with the corruption risks:

Operation Richmond also highlighted how public servants can undermine the effective and ethical public administration when they do not act as impartial advisors and implementers of government policy. This was most starkly demonstrated in the involvement of Mr Eccles and Mr Bates in the undisclosed negotiations …

where they actually went out and did not even consult with the cabinet minister. I think that is the part that those on that side need to really have a good, long, hard look at. A minister in their own government was willing to resign. I will put it on record, and I have said it about Jane Garrett before: I have so much respect for Jane Garrett for what she did during Operation Richmond and during the investigations. This is a person who I think has done more than anyone in this place when it comes to integrity by stepping down and standing up for the volunteers that she was put in place to protect. I think right now the Labor Party have a very clear pathway to ensure that they can respect and honour Jane Garrett’s name, and the best way to do that is to act on what has happened within this report with Operation Richmond to ensure that this cannot happen again by changing the legislation and making sure that we do not see the outcomes that we have seen where boards get sacked if they do not agree with you or if you are trying to do the right thing. I spoke to some of those board members, and all they wanted to do was the right thing. Each and every time it came to them they were highlighting the cost of how it was going to impact them and of where they had to spend extra money on some of the most ridiculous claims that you have seen in EBAs, in the side deals. Where was the money coming from? The government, as we found out today, did not have money trees. What they were going to do was cut the funding available for fire trucks, for equipment and stations and for volunteers across the state. And it happened. Fire stations across the state simply do not have what they need.

There is one other section which I said did not really get touched on too much, the appointment of the fire rescue commissioner. We actually had the MFB CEO here at the time, who I am going to say was one of the best CEOs and chiefs the MFB ever had. He went back to England. But when he got here, to that role of MFB CEO/chief, it was on the proviso, with a five-year contract, that he would take over Fire Rescue Victoria. But Lisa Neville went behind his back with Peter Marshall, and they worked to ensure that he would not get that role. He relocated to this country with his family to ensure that our services would get better, and he was treated like crap by Labor, and he will never forgive them for what happened. Nor should he, because no person should ever be treated like that. Anyone who has come across here to deliver the best for our fire services should be respected, and he was not. I have spoken to him in the past, and I can guarantee you there is so much missing from this report that they chose not to put into the report and into the public domain that should be there. As I said at the start, this report is simply a DNA brief of the Victorian Labor Party and corruption here in Victoria, and we must stop it.