Add Category
The latest line of questioning of Marlene Kairouz’s electorate officer Kirsten Psaila has been about the ALP’s national conference nomination forms.
Counsel assisting the inquiry Chris Carr SC said MP Marlene Kairouz described in secretly recorded phone conversations about having “20-odd” nomination forms that were signed by the required number of Labor members, but the nominee was left blank.
MP Adem Somyurek headed the Moderate Labor faction. Credit:Jason South
“It’s a bit like signing a blank cheque...for a nominee for an internal ALP election,” Mr Carr said.
Commissioner Robert Redlich asked who would then decide who the nominee would be.
“I guess it would be the powers that be in Moderate Labor...I assumed like Adem [Somyurek], and Robin [Scott] and yeah, Marlene,” Ms Psaila replied.
The faction wanted to control the ballots for the 2018 national conference in order for Mr Somyurek to replace his rival Stephen Conroy on the party’s national executive, the inquiry heard.
“So what this is all about is getting power within the party,” Mr Carr said.
“You could say that, yep,” Ms Psaila responded.
Mr Redlich put to Ms Psaila that this process meant members of the party were not having a genuine say as to who they want to nominate and who should be elected.
Electoral officer Kirsten Psaila before IBAC’s Operation Watts public examination on Wednesday.
Mr Carr added: “What’s at the heart of it is that these people who are not really people who have any genuine interest in being members of the ALP. They’re just people whose memberships have been renewed, whose memberships have been paid for and whose ballots and signatures are collected as needed by the faction”.
Mr Carr said that Ms Kairouz spent $15,000 to $18,000 every year on memberships was not simply a “benevolent act” to help cover people experiencing financial disadvantage.
“It was because by paying that...Ms Kairouz would obtain power within the party,” Mr Carr said.
“Yes,” Ms Psaila replied.
Ms Psaila agreed that taxpayer-funded electoral officers like herself were involved in the “enormous amount of administration” involved in the process.
“You could say that this was all seriously wrong conduct?” Mr Carr put to Ms Psaila.
“Yep, but they all do it,” Ms Psaila said.
Ms Kairouz, who has been charged with breaching party rules by branch stacking, has denied the allegations.
Branch stacking is not illegal, but rather, a breach of party rules.