Thread by @Voice4Victoria

IBAC/Operation Watts' 5 weeks of hearings kick off at 10am today, anyone can watch live here.
ibac.vic.gov.au/investigating-…

We're still playing the waiting game.

IBAC Commissioner to Byrne "you must answer Qs truthfully or risk perjury charges which can result in 15 years imprisonment. Those answers, if true, can't be used against you in a court. Unless you are found to lie, then you can be brought up on perjury charges".

Ohhhh they started with the Red Shirts which Somyurek has given evidence was "systematic and intentional". Oh dear, this is off to quite the start for Labor.

"Branch stacking is time consuming".
Omg they've got an electoral officer who says they and everyone else believed they worked for Labor and were to assist with party memberships, not with electoral enquires. This is bad for Labor. Very bad.

Now 'were grants given to businesses who helped get Labor members as possible rewards'. This team did not come to play.

Now stating that many interviews have been conducted confidentially over many months, that some people were willing to be very truthful while others chose to not be. They appear to have come very, very prepared to run this. Zero envy for anyone fronting this freight train.

Byrne "I thought the party was completely out of control".
SC "What are you referring to?"
Byrne "I'm referring to branch stacking & staff doing things they didn't want to do. It was being pushed by one person"
SC "Who's that person?"
Byrne "Somyurek".

Yep this is looking like it'll be an "who can go under the bus harder" public battle.
Can't WAIT to see how Somyurek responds to being scapegoated by the ALP 👀

SC "Have you had any involvement in branch stacking Mr Byrne?".
Byrne "I certainly have".

Well this is certainly bringing the spice and we're less than an hour in to day one of weeks of hearings. I think there's some audible MP sweating happening in VIC right now.

Bryne just admitted he paid for other people's memberships, in a 'systematic' way in a 'well entrenched system' that according to Bryne 'never really stopped'.
He's now describing the system.
HOLY. 🔥

Ohhhh an informal group called "the South East alliance" formed of Byrne, Donnellen, Richardson and Somyurek.
State Labor names officially dragged into this.
Byrne "I put some of them into Parliament"

"Why was there a need for an alliance".
"In the Labor party there are different factions, we were from the right and there were nearby MPs on the left".
Byrne's admitted it was factional.

"Who paid for the memberships?" 🔥

Bryne just admitted he has essentially spent his entire political career paying for party memberships.

Man seems to be taking that perjury threat very seriously because so far appears to be singing like a canary on the branch stacking.

**tries to follow questioning while aggressively refreshing Twitter**

SC confirming that power and influence in Labor is linked to having people on the various admin committees. There's also power and influence having people on the preselection committee.

We're into the structure of factions within the Labor party and the roles they play in Victoria. 🔥

SC "if one is to maintain preselection in Victoria, is it a practical requirement to belong to a faction?".
Byrne "generally, yes".

Side note: we definitely need a federal one of these.

Byrne breaking down names in moderate Labor memberships in Victorian Parl on request.
SC "Which of these were, on your direct knowledge, involved in branch stacking".
Names Marlene, Adem, Kaushaliya.

Bryne claiming he blocked Somyurek from his phone in 2019.

Bryne claiming Somyurek schemed to 'take out' (politically) MPs belonging to the socialist left to put in members from the 'moderate' faction/or someone he had an agreement with.

SC asking if he had power to do that, at that stage.

Bryne says at that stage yes.

Donellan worked in Byrne's office previously. Commissioner asks if Byrne essentially "trained" people in branch stacking.
Byrne says he wouldn't use that word. Seems to struggle to explain what it would be if not training exactly.

SC "You and Somyurek were obviously close for a long period of time, but had a fallout at some point, when would you say that was".
Byrne "around 2015/2016". Culminated in him blocking Adem in 2019 as previously stated.

SC "Are they your messages?"
Byrne "I don't recall sending them but if they're my messages, they're my messages".
Mild improvement on the old standard 'I do not recall'.

We're into questions on specific fundraisers that happened 👀

Oh dear, Tim Richardson fundraiser put up first under questioning.
Timmy baby isn't going to enjoy that one.

SC "people weren't told that cash was going towards memberships".
Byrne "no they weren't aware".
SC "isn't that a breach of ALP rules?"
Byrne "yes it is".

Oh the term "factional masters" got cracked out by Chris Carr.
Quite the descriptive term.

Labor head office now getting dragged into the middle of this. There is just zero hesitation in going for or naming anyone in the questions from IBAC.

"Subcontinental friends of Labor", wow what an organisation name.

Well, Byrne's just said a current sitting VIC MP was elected via branch stacking efforts by Somyurek. Oh boy.

The IBAC hearings vs Labor spin machine right now.

SC "People in Labor head office can't have been unaware"
Byrne "No"

What they say about the direction of rotting fish is getting implied here.

The level of detail that's getting aired of inappropriate proceses being undertaken is just wild.
The spin machine is going to REALLY struggle with this. Byrne is binning Somyurek hard, which is what some would want, but also trashing a lot of the party - while he's a current MP.

What. A. Message.
Talks about needing to fill out internal ballot papers, with an Adam Sullivan, a previous worker for both Byrne & Somyurek

SC "Do you recall sending this txt"
Byrne "no"
SC "is it not memorable because it wasn't an uncommon message?"
Byrne "not necessarily"

40 minute break until resumed. Note that the hearing livestream is delayed half a hour to public view, that's why the times are off. They also appear to have not changed their daylight savings settings 😂

Well, Byrne's come out and dropped in that he believes it was Adem who leaked the texts to the HS.

Distinction made that 2.5 is not "half a person" but part time 😂

We're digging into inappropriatly directed behaviour of electoral office staff. This will be spicy. Chris Carr briefly glossed over at the very start of the day they'd managed to secretly interview an electorate staff member who thought their role was to manage party memberships.

This is one of the major areas that Operation Watts is looking at.

Byrne admits he knew of a staffer who was being paid who never turned up to the office. Claims this was arranged by Adem, his office manager paid it, but he knew.

There is someone floating in the background of this who "can't be identified". Hmm.

SC "Did Somyurek suggest similar arrangements to other MPs?"
Byrne "If he did it to me, he did it to others. But not exactly sure who".

Hmm. This comes across slightly odd? He's such a big, bad influence but you're not sure of anyone else he's influencing? Hmm ok then.

Finally worked out what feels so weird about watching this.
It's watching an MP just let it rip in actually admitting things that they've done wrong. Utterly foreign in this country.

Byrne admits he employed Somyurek's son.

OH. We've lost the feed.
"This part of the hearing is closed to the public". Bugger. You just know this is the juicy bits.

What's currently being discussed, if Somyurek interfered with City of Dandenong elections.
dandenong.starcommunity.com.au/news/2020-06-2…

We're going into detail around City of Dandenong elections and the influence Byrne is claiming that Somyurek had over influencing the outcome due to established relationships he had.

Interesting as this is about claiming that Somyurek didn't involve himself but it was on request this didn't happen, so still throws him under the bus as being a discussed 'power broker', even if he hasn't actually done anything in the end.

OMG. Somyurek's lawyers have requested (from him) the ability to cross-examine Byrne. Commissioner says this may be able to happen, unsure at this point if it will be live or not. For now, Byrne's hearing is adjourned & his evidence is currently not considered concluded.

We're back to the "not for the public" screen.

That's looking like it for today, they may just be discussing the cross examination aspect.
What a day.

Special guests for the rest of the week are former staff linked to Byrne & Somyurek.
EAs tend to know all, so that may be interesting & Sullivan was the one named in texts earlier today between Bryne & Somyurek about filling out the election forms.

Transcripts are up from today.
ibac.vic.gov.au/investigating-…