Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdogs have decided not to pursue prosecution against Victorian Labor MPs engaging in deliberate, extensive and egregious use of taxpayer funds.
While the report found evidence of a range of unethical behaviour from hiring unqualified people into publicly funded roles, nepotism, forging signatures, bullying and attempts to interfere with the government grants process, the watchdogs did not refer the implicated MPs to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The anti-corruption organisations explained that the above conducts were not sufficiently or clearly described by any existing law about misconduct in public office.
Branch Stacking Not Limited to One Labor Faction
In addition, the report found that the branch stacking practice was not limited to one Victorian Labor faction. However, evidence of misconduct only pointed to former Labor MP Adem Somyurek’s moderate faction.“We had no specific evidence that allowed us to determine the extent of misuse by any other faction,” the report said.

The practice, which is known as branch stacking, does not violate the laws but is against Labor party’s rules.