Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has refused to comment on allegations he knew about Labor's red shirts rorts scheme in the lead-up to the 2014 election.
Sacked former government minister Adem Somyurek on Monday told the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) Mr Andrews dismissed him when he tried to warn him about the rorting.
"He said words to the effect of … 'Do you want to win the election or not'," Mr Somyurek claimed.
The Premier, despite denying in the past that he knew about the scandal at the time, refused to comment on the allegations when asked by journalists at a press conference today.
"I'm not getting into a debate or discussion about evidence that has been led by that witness or any witness," Mr Andrews said.
"I wouldn't do it if it was a court and I'm not doing it with IBAC."
Ombudsman Deborah Glass found in 2018 that Labor had misused $388,000 of public money through the red shirts arrangement, which saw campaign organisers employed as electorate officers.
The arrangement effectively meant Labor's campaign was partially paid for with parliamentary funds, the ombudsman found.
On Monday, IBAC heard claims the ombudsman's investigation encouraged bad behaviour to continue in the party, because no criminal charges were recommended.
"We accepted responsibility and move forward, but beyond that I really don't have anything more to add."
The Victorian opposition has demanded the Premier be called to appear at the IBAC hearings, which are investigating the misuse of taxpayer funds for branch stacking and other political work in the Victorian branch of the ALP.
"This behaviour appears to be rife throughout the Labor Party," Shadow Treasurer David Davis said.
"This is a tawdry position, and clearly the Premier has got to answer down at IBAC that allegation about red shirts."
Somyurek concedes factional work done by electorate staff
Mr Somyurek returned to the IBAC stand on Tuesday to give evidence for a second consecutive day.
Yesterday, he told the inquiry the red shirts scandal was corruption because of the "sheer scale" of the affair.
Today, he was asked whether using electorate staff for a few hours for factional work also amounted to corruption.
"I don't think it is corruption," he said.
Mr Somyurek told the inquiry he hired factional operatives in his electorate office to do party work, but claims their main role was to do constituency work.
"I concede some [factional work] is done during office hours, I reckon they spend a lot of time not doing factional work and probably gossiping with their mates," Mr Somyurek said.
"They don't spend their days doing factional work, because there isn't enough for them to do."
He was also shown a document he prepared in March 2020, where he wrote up factional tasks for the roles of staff in his electorate office.
Mr Somyurek laughed at the list and said most of the jobs were not time-consuming and some would take about half an hour to complete.
"It was made to look like there is a lot to do, but there wasn't," Mr Somyurek said.
Mr Somyurek was again warned on the stand by counsel assisting IBAC Chris Carr to wait for the questions before giving his answer, after tense exchanges between the pair at the hearings yesterday.
