Nearly 200 Victorian Labor members will have their cards torn up after an internal investigation found irregularities around the use of pre-paid gift cards and credit cards to sign up multiple members.

However, the investigation is likely to spark fresh fighting within the party, with dissidents claiming it had dramatically understated the level of membership corruption.

The report, prepared by the right's Garth Head and Liz Beattie from the left and obtained by the ABC recommends that 180 memberships be voided because their memberships were renewed using credit cards that had also paid for multiple other memberships.

A further 266 members who used pre-paid cards will be asked to explain irregularities in their membership renewals.

The investigation also identified three members who bought more than five memberships in one year, in contravention of party rules, and who should face the party's disciplinary tribunal as a result.

But the Head/Beattie investigation found that anonymous pre-paid cards were not being used systematically to hide branch stacking in the party.

Branch stacking is used as a way for factional players to boost their support and increase their power over key positions in the party.

Unlike a bank credit card, which lists the name of the cardholder in Labor's online payment database, the pre-paid cards can be purchased without identification, are not linked to a bank account and are far more difficult for the party to trace.

The powerful administrative committee of the Labor party met today to vote on the recommendation stemming from the month-long investigation.

Senator Stephen Conroy, a powerful figure in the right faction, is said to have attended the meeting.

Critics of the investigation described the investigation as a whitewash, with one saying the report did not dig deep enough because the party feared that more fraudulent payments would be discovered if it had.

There were renewed calls for an independent investigator to be appointed to further investigate the alleged fraud, but any resolution calling for a new inquiry is likely to be defeated.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-26/labor-to-tear-up-memberships-following-bra...

Armchair_Politician wrote on Nov 26^th, 2015 at 9:16pm:


Link?

greggerypeccary wrote on Nov 26^th, 2015 at 9:27pm:


Google it. The links are too numerous for me to post.

philperth2010 wrote on Nov 26^th, 2015 at 9:34pm:


To be fair to Bill, this has been going on since long before he became Labor leader. He's in it up to his neck himself from his time as boss of the AWU, having misused members dues himself.

greggerypeccary wrote on Nov 26^th, 2015 at 9:37pm:


Hey, not my fault you're lazy and have your head up your arse.