{"id":14636,"date":"2021-10-12T11:50:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/?p=14636"},"modified":"2021-10-12T11:51:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T00:51:40","slug":"first-blood-victorian-labor-minister-luke-donnellan-has-resigned-from-cabinet-after-just-one-day-of-ibac-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/first-blood-victorian-labor-minister-luke-donnellan-has-resigned-from-cabinet-after-just-one-day-of-ibac-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"First blood: Victorian Labor minister Luke Donnellan has resigned from Cabinet after just One Day of IBAC Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dan Andrews’ minister and political ally falls on sword after just ONE day of public hearings into alleged corruption within his party – and more scalps are set to follow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigation has begun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will look at the misuse of taxpayer-funded staff and community grants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labor MP Anthony Byrne admitted to branch stacking and implicated Donnellan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premier Daniel Andrews has refused to comment on Mr Donnellan’s decision\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Wayne Flower, Melbourne Correspondent<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: 16:36 AEDT, 11 October 2021 | Updated: 18:12 AEDT, 11 October 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public inquiry into alleged corruption within Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ government has produced its first scalp within hours of opening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victorian Labor minister Luke Donnellan sensationally resigned from Cabinet on Monday after the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission heard an allegation he had paid for other people’s party memberships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will move to the backbench in disgrace after he was thrown under the bus by Federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne, who has admitted to rampant and repeated  ‘branch stacking’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Victorian Labor minister Luke Donnellan has resigned from his position after day one of an the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission public inquiry<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The public hearings will also look into ‘allegations that public money intended to fund community associations was misused for party\u2010political work or other improper purposes’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearings are expected to go for at least a month and drag before it a series of ALP power brokers – possibly even the premier himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On announcing his resignation on Monday afternoon, Mr Donnellan admitted to branch stacking, but denied ever misusing public funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I accept that I have previously breached party rules while a minister. But let me be very clear: I never misused public funds or resources in any way,’ he said via a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Andrews released a short statement directly after in which he paid gushing tribute to the ex-Minister for Child Protection and Disability, Ageing and Carers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he refused to be drawn into the scandal, which has already exposed damning allegations of dodgy practices throughout the Labor party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Due to inquiries currently on foot, I will not be making further comment,’ Mr Andrews stated on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Donnellan claimed he had only stepped down for breaking party rules over the supposedly shunned practice of branch stacking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I don\u2019t believe it is possible or appropriate to maintain my Ministerial responsibilities given these rule breaches,’ he stated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Branch stacking is a practice within political parties that sees people recruited into a branch of a political party to influence who is pre-selected as an election candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan Andrews’ minister and political ally falls on sword after just ONE day of public hearings into alleged corruption within his party – and more scalps are set to follow Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigation has begun It will look at the misuse of taxpayer-funded staff and community grants Labor MP Anthony Byrne admitted to… Read More »First blood: Victorian Labor minister Luke Donnellan has resigned from Cabinet after just One Day of IBAC Inquiry<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[4433,4432,4431,94,659,4430,4429,675],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/first-blood.jpg?fit=375%2C211&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14639,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14636\/revisions\/14639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unshackledminds.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}