25 September 2024
UFU calls for investigation into IBAC after multi-million-dollar miscarriage of justice, report finds no corruption.
The United Firefighters Union today called for an investigation into the IBAC after the organisation oversaw a 4-year witch hunt into the UFU and Secretary Peter Marshall, characterised by a misuse of power, leaking of private and confidential information and total abandonment of proper legal process.
The investigation cost the taxpayer millions of dollars, ultimately making no finding of corruption against the UFU or Mr Marshall.
The report lays bare IBAC’s complete and abject failure to play its role in an impartial way – ignoring real examples of corruption by MFB officials, in the misguided and feverish pursuit of the union.
The report – more accurately characterised as a work of fiction – is the product of a gross miscarriage of justice in which IBAC has acted on anonymous allegations and selectively edited materials without giving the UFU or Mr Marshall an opportunity to answer or challenge the accusers.
The investigation used deeply intrusive practices such as extended phone tapping of all phone conversations not limited to those that were work-related, physical surveillance, raids, the seizing of property including personal items and legally privileged documents, and coercive hearings.
Mr Marshall was subjected to a personal examination by Commissioner Redlich for two days during which he was not once presented with the accusations against him or the union and given no opportunity to answer them. This is a disgraceful abandonment of fair process and natural justice.
This is important because IBAC has very considerable and intrusive coercive powers and the only protection against them is a right to natural justice – which has not been afforded in his case.
Rather than running a proper process, looking at all of the evidence, the IBAC ran a one-sided agenda and completely overlooked instances of actual corruption and misconduct by MFB executives, to which its attention was drawn by the union.
Mr Marshall said the IBAC was “more interested in investigating how a Firefighter Union Secretary was provided information that was relevant to the fire service, than investigating the significance of the issues themselves.”
“It is a matter of record now that the former MFB Chief Officer Dan Stephens flew a UK consultant to Australia on the public purse and in breach of Victorian procurement procedures to propose a mechanism to reduce firefighter and public safety by slashing numbers of firefighters attending emergency incidents,” Mr Marshall said.
“It is not corrupt for a firefighters’ union to bring to this to the attention of the Minister, it was a union leader doing his job. These were matters that should be brought to a Minister’s attention – especially where the relevant Board Presidents or Fire Chiefs are failing to do so.
“The IBAC was advised of actual corruption by MFB Board members who manipulated their contracts to enhance their payouts when the MFB was to be wound up.
“This corruption was so casually dismissed by the former IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich that the entire process should be called into question. Instead, he focussed on how we discovered and brought this corruption to the attention of the Minister.
“These are the real breaches of public trust that should have been investigated, and instead the focus of investigation was how a PowerPoint document was provided to the union.”
In calling for an investigation into the conduct of the IBAC, Mr Marshall said the Commission had abused its power and needed to be held accountable.
“There were regular leaks of confidential information that led to hundreds of news items since 2019. It is ironic that an organisation supposedly investigating the inappropriate use of information, took no steps to investigate the improper use of its confidential material to the media. No other coercive body has had anywhere near the same level of leaks.”
Despite all attempts to demonise the United Firefighters Union and its Branch Secretary Peter Marshall, ultimately no finding of corrupt conduct was made against the UFU or Mr Marshall.
Having got to that point, Mr Redlich, and his successor after him, undertook a so-called “educational” report about the culture in the former MFB, a task for which neither of them had any expertise.
“This report was based on selective analysis and quotations of evidence and snippets of dubious evidence taken out of context and provided by individuals with an axe to grind against the union.
“This sort of evidence would have been rejected out of hand by Mr Redlich when he was a judge – we are left to puzzle why the same standard was not applied to this investigating of a union.”
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