The Victorian Labor Party has been rocked by allegations of widespread branch-stacking, involving thousands of its members, rigged preselection votes and illegal money-making activities.
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Hardline Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall has written to Labor authorities demanding an investigation into the recruitment of up to 4000 party members and into the conduct of party fundraising events that featured high-profile Labor figures as speakers.
But the main target of Mr Marshall's accusations, former minister Adem Somyurek, strongly denies the claims of the union leader, saying Mr Marshall had "a tiny union, a small brain and a massive ego."
The party was not making any comment on Wednesday about Mr Marshall’s allegations, which dramatically escalate his feud with former emergency services minister Jane Garrett and threaten to plunge Labor into fresh internal turmoil with a state election four months away.
Mr Marshall alleges that South East Labor Unity, a grouping around Ms Garrett’s key ally and rising factional player Mr Somyurek, has recruited up to 4000 members, about a quarter of the party’s Victorian membership.
The union boss says stacking has not been confined to Melbourne's south-east and notes that Labor's Heidelberg Branch has exploded in membership from about 12 to more than 325, with Mr Marshall saying the rapid growth warrants an investigation and an explanation.
He also says there are concerns about the “legitimacy” of last year’s preselection battle for the upper house seat in Western Metro, alleging hundreds of ballot papers were delivered by a party operative to the ALP’s Docklands HQ in what was supposed to be a postal vote of the local membership.
But potentially most serious of all, Mr Marshall says money raised though a series of events held by the South East network between 2012 and 2014 was funnelled into bank accounts that were not registered with the party, a serious breach of Labor rules but of Commonwealth electoral laws.
“I’m not alleging that the Labor Party is in breach of the law, I’m alleging and I’m asking for an investigation about certain elements of the Labor Party,” Mr Marshall told ABC radio on Wednesday morning.
“There’s been a number of fundraisers and it's part of custom and practice to raise funds but it that money hasn’t been raised in accordance with the rules of the Labor Party and accordance with the Australian Electoral Commission then that’s very wrong,” the union leader said.
“I have it on very reliable sources that those accounts are not registered with the Labor Party the way they should be.
“If that be the case then people need to be brought to account.”
Mr Somyurek issued a stongly worded denial on Wednesday, saying all of his fundraising activities followed Labor rules and electoral laws.
The right faction leader also lashed out at his accuser.
"[Mr Marshall] only has three delegates to state conference out of 606 yet he thinks he can veto preselections and impose his will on the government - it is time that we drew a line in the sand before he brings the government down," Mr Somyurek told The Age.
"His latest attack is an attack not on me but on the Labor party in the south-east, including the Premier, a senior minister and marginal seat holders.
"He has been destroying our state government for years and it can’t go on."
Mr Marshall is clear in what he wants: the dumping of a proposed deal that would see Ms Garrett return to State Parliament - a key demand of Mr Somyurek and of the powerful building union the CFMEU, which is also closely allied with the member for Brunswick.
