• last year
Another chapter of the Andrews government's branch-stacking saga is unfolding with revelations Labor has been renewing the party membership of people who've died. That's prompting fresh questions about the integrity of the government and the opposition wants the Premier to sack his key ally and cabinet colleague Lily D'Ambrosio over the allegations.

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00:00 Tom Donato never knew his father was a Labor Party member.
00:06 Until yesterday.
00:07 It came as a shock to me.
00:08 I didn't know and apparently he was re-signed in 2018 and 2019.
00:14 And I find that incredible because he passed in 2017.
00:17 Antonio Donato was one of two people reported to have had a Labor Party membership renewed
00:21 in the Leila South branch after they died.
00:24 I don't know how that happened.
00:25 I'm just dumbfounded by it.
00:29 It's suspected that it was part of a branch stacking operation where signatures were forged
00:33 to build internal factional power.
00:35 What's been going on in the Labor Party is rotten.
00:38 The branch sits in Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio's Mill Park electorate.
00:43 She's a factional figure who says she only learned the dead members last night.
00:47 I've always abided by the rules.
00:49 Always.
00:50 And of course what is really important here is that I've always acted with honesty and
00:55 integrity.
00:56 In 2020, the state government was rocked by this 60 Minutes expose that showed then-Minister
01:02 Adam Somyarek leading a branch stacking operation.
01:05 He was promptly sacked and the issue referred to IBAC.
01:08 Years later, the Anti-Corruption Commission made damning findings about the ALP.
01:12 But this time, the Premier is standing by his socialist left ally.
01:17 She is a person of character and integrity.
01:19 In 2020, Labor luminaries Steve Brax and Jenny Macklin audited the party's membership.
01:24 Layla South lost dozens of its members.
01:27 It's not my branch.
01:29 I've not been a member of that branch for years.
01:32 For years.
01:33 Every safe seat in the Labor Party is stacked.
01:37 And it's just this further proof.
01:39 It's not just Lily D'Ambrosio.
01:41 In question time, the opposition wanted apologies and independent investigations.
01:47 I don't deal with hypotheticals.
01:49 Never have.
01:50 Never will.
01:51 Layla Andrews needs to dismiss Minister D'Ambrosio, refer her to IBAC and to Victoria Police.
01:57 But that's highly unlikely to happen.
02:00 The problem Labor now faces is that the number of questions about its integrity continues
02:04 to grow.
02:05 This afternoon, the opposition referred this latest flashpoint to IBAC.
02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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