This article was written based on information discovered outside of the draft IBAC report.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to questions from The Age. Instead, Andrews’ media director responded with a series of questions seeking more details of the allegations and asking whether The Age trusted its sources.
IBAC interviewed a number of people involved in the contract negotiations as part of its investigation, he told The Age, including former Health Minister Jill Hennessy.
Daniel Andrews, then-Health Minister Jilly Hennessy (third from right) and union leader Diana Asmar (right) announced the $2.2 million election pledge a week before the 2018 election campaign began. Credit: Paul Sakkal
A crucial meeting
The government awarded a $1.2 million contract, described in public documents, to the HWU on the eve of the 2018 election. Seven days earlier, and before the tender had closed, Andrews publicly announce an additional $2.2 million election pledge for the same training program along with Asmar.
Publicly available footage shows the prime minister announcing the funding as a “partnership” with the union during a press conference with Asmar and Jill Hennessy, who was health minister at the time, a week before the caretaker period.
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Andrews said at the time: “Today we are announcing $2.2 million in additional investment, in partnership with the HWU, to ensure all staff are trained and have the knowledge and skills to maintain -be safe. We know that healthcare environments can be very difficult.”
Two sources with knowledge of the investigation told The Age that a critical meeting between the prime minister, Asmar and others in early October, weeks before the $2.2 million announcement, had been a particular focus of the IBAC researchers. Sources alleged that Andrews promised the money.
the age has confirmed that IBAC investigators questioned witnesses about whether political advisers in Andrews and Hennessy’s offices had pressured public officials to approve the $1.2 million payment to the union.
On the campaign trail on Friday, Andrews was asked if IBAC investigators had interviewed him or his staff.
“What IBAC is doing or not doing, who they’ve talked to or not, that’s a matter for them,” he said.
Asmar said in a statement to the age could not comment on “any inquiries” arising from the contract award, but said the union had acted appropriately during contract negotiations.
“The Health Workers Union acted solely in the interests of our members and health workers,” he said. “Any trade union secretary would have pressed the government to protect the job security of its members.
“Violence against healthcare workers is real and it was entirely appropriate for the Prime Minister to support this much-needed initiative.”
The revelations from the anti-corruption probe will raise new questions about the government’s record of integrity, particularly as Operation Daintree is investigating Andrews’ personal actions, unlike other corruption investigations for which he was questioned but not it was central
It is the fourth known anti-corruption inquiry to privately interview the Labor leader, who is seeking his third term as prime minister. He was also questioned on IBAC operations in Richmond, on Labor’s dealings with the fire union, Sandon on allegedly corrupt developers, and Watts, who criticized Labour’s internal culture.
Concierge Conventions
The Age has confirmed that the union first approached the government with a proposed training program in early 2018. No other suppliers were considered, which is unusual for a contract of this size.
Before completing the Department of Health’s due diligence process for the training course, the government, which was on the verge of moving into caretaker mode, made a pledge of $2.2 million for a training course expanded for 1,000 workers, which is referenced on the union’s Facebook page and a government press release.
Bidding documents show the first promised contract, for $1.2 million, was finally signed on Oct. 30, the day before the provision period before the 2018 election. Once that phase begins a months before election day, the government cannot enact government policy. In earlier days, convention dictated that the government should not force a future government into controversial decisions.
The union’s training entity, the Health Education Federation, only received part of the promised funding because the COVID-19 lockdowns halted the training program in 2020.
Sources familiar with the negotiations said department officials later tried to cancel the union’s contract because they determined the program was of poor quality. Asmar rejected this criticism, telling The Age that the training module was refined over time and was led by “highly credible” instructors.
“It was necessary for people who represent frontline health workers to develop a training program for frontline health workers,” Asmar said. “From day one, however, the Department of Health had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of their lazy state by their political masters to act on this important issue.”
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Department of Health did not respond to detailed questions from The Age.
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Integrity in government has been a key issue in the early stages of the 2022 election campaign. Voters across the state, polled as part of The Age’s Victoria’s Agenda project, said they wanted to know how the parties would protect the system Victoria politician of corruption and misuse of public funds.
The Coalition initially targeted the government on integrity issues in the run-up to the election campaign, before that line of argument was derailed by revelations that then opposition leader Matthew Guy’s chief of staff, Mitch Catlin , sought $100,000 in payments to his private marketing firm in a contract that, if signed, could have violated state rules on political donations. Guy copied himself in the email containing the proposed contract.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy described the number of anti-corruption investigations to scrutinize the government as “unprecedented” during a press conference on Friday.
“It’s one of the reasons why I’ve said that I think the corruption commission needs its powers to be expanded and its powers to be more secure and expanded.”
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