Red Shirt Affair in Victoria

Soon after the ALP won government in 2014, new Liberal Leader Matthew Guy raised the issue of Red Shirts being inappropriately employed in parliament. The actual issue had been raised by a former ALP Red Shirt . The ALP immediately stonewalled on the issue and and spent a million dollars defending the allegation by preventing investigation. However, every court that examined the issue found there was a case to be answered, and finally the upper house of Victoria investigated and found corruption. Dan Andrews, ALP Premier of Victoria paid back the misappropriated money, but not the money spent defending the corrupt activity. A police investigation is now being held into twenty one ALP members, including six government ministers, including the police commissioner. The police commissioner has not stood aside for the investigation. There is an election on November 24th, and the exchange of writs is scheduled for November 1st.

Both major political parties have volunteers. Sometimes, their workers get paid. But the electoral office has strict rules as to who is paid, and the work they do. Liberals have Blue Shirt volunteers who help out on voting day, and on campaigns. ALP have red shirted volunteers and campaigners. Prior to the 2014 election, ALP paid some Red Shirts through funding of the Electoral Office. But they weren’t working for the Electoral Office, but campaigners for the ALP. The amount diverted from the Electoral Office was $380k. Tellingly, the arrangement was only in marginal seats, and safe seats like Dandenong did not have the arrangement. Dan Andrews has argued that he was unaware the arrangement was corrupt. So why was it not done in safe seats too? The government has been aware for years of the nature of their corrupt arrangement, spending a million dollars to avoid addressing it, but they must have known from day one through legal advice that it had been wrong. They could have saved the state a million dollars and paid up straight away. Why are police investigating now? Is it like the FBI investigating Hillary so as to prevent further investigation later?

Update 24th October
ALP members refuse to cooperate with police over interviews 

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Read David Daniel Ball's answer to What is the Victorian ALP Red Shirt Affair? on Quora
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I've been asked about the Red Shirt Affair. "Why has Matthew Guy been so low key on the issue?" is an unfair question. Matthew is the reason the affair has seen light. Media chose not to report prior to investigation, and following the investigation, spread a similar, unfounded, smear made by the ALP. The ALP's position is, in my humble opinion, corrupt and unsupportable.