Oh, how the worms of Victorian Labor politics turn! One moment, Dan Andrews is set to pass his pandemic dictatorship bill as a matter of utmost urgency, the next, he’s rushing to delay the final vote in parliament. All because of one of his own disgraced MPs.
In a government that’s become a byword for corruption and dictatorial arrogance, the irony is beyond delicious.
The Andrews government’s controversial pandemic management Bill is in disarray with former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek revealing he will return to parliament to block it.
Mr Somyurek was unexpectedly cleared to return to parliament on Wednesday ahead of an upper house vote on the legislation this week but the government is now scrambling to delay the vote.
Somyurek was expelled from the ALP after allegations of branch-stacking — a common practice in Labor politics, but Somyurek had the chutzpah to brag about it and get caught. Somyurek was recording boasting that “I’ll be just running the joint” in Victoria, and that Indians made better branch-stacking stooges than “Anglos”: Anglos just f— off after a while. The good thing about Indians is they pay. Well, people pay for them.”
In recent weeks, testimony to a corruption commission, about and by Somyurek, has testified to the depth and breadth of corruption in the Victorian government.
Somyurek was suspended from the Victorian parliament for failing to meet its vaccine mandates. He’s since provided proof of vaccination — and is back to wreak havoc with Dictator’s Dan’s plan to vote himself absolute pandemic despot in Victoria.
Mr Somyurek told the Herald Sun he would oppose the Bill, saying it gives “too much power to the government” and could lead to a “tyranny of rule by decree”.
Victoria was already “essentially an elective dictatorship”, he added, saying the bill does not include adequate checks to prevent abuses of power.
Even after buying off three micro-party independents, the bill would have passed Victoria’s upper house by a single vote. If Somyurek votes against it, the tied vote will see it defeated.
Suddenly, Dan’s “urgent” legislation isn’t so urgent after all. Last week, Andrews was clear that he “doesn’t have the luxury to consult and consult and consult in order to achieve universal support”.
It is understood the government will now seek to delay the vote on what it has until now described as an “urgent” bill, and instead seek leave to debate windfall tax legislation which is also currently before the upper house.
Challenged over whether he was comfortable with a law that allows his government to detain people without charge, indefinitely, without them having the right of appeal to a court, Mr Andrews said: “Let’s be very clear: there’s a context. There’s an absolute context in relation to this, and I think there are safeguards” […]
The only safeguard available to someone detained under the new legislation is the ability to appeal to a bureaucrat within the Health Department.
The Australian
And the only safeguard for democracy in Victoria, it seems, is a disgraced, back-room power-broker, out for revenge against the party which threw him under the bus.
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