In April 2016, the firefighters’ union leader, Peter Marshall, walked into the Victorian premier’s office at 1 Treasury Place carrying what appeared to be a breakthrough: a union “proposal” that promised to end one of the state’s most bitter industrial disputes.
When questioned years later by Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, then premier Daniel Andrews said the duo didn’t discuss its substance.
“It was to give, if you like, an assurance that we were fair dinkum, that we were genuine, that we were good faith actors,” Andrews said of the meeting.
But the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) reached a different view. In its Operation Richmond report, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, Ibac concluded the meeting appeared to have been “staged” so there would be a witness to the proposal being formally presented to government by Marshall.
Days later, it was then presented to cabinet as though it had come from the union. Ministers – including then emergency services minister, Jane Garrett, who had been leading enterprise bargaining negotiations between the United Firefighters Union (UFU) and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) – were unaware senior government officials had helped negotiate it.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email“The development of the draft agreement was led by me,” the then deputy secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tony Bates, told Ibac during an examination.
“If there was a presentation of the agreement to the premier’s office I would categorise it as ceremonial.”
Operation Richmond, which began in 2018, stopped short of making findings of corrupt conduct. But it found members of the Andrews government engaged in “serious and concerning” conduct in their dealings with Marshall, who came to exert “extraordinary influence” over firefighter pay negotiations and, later, the amalgamation of the CFA and Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB).
‘Champagne glasses in hand’
The dispute over firefighters’ pay and conditions had become a key political issue in the 2014 Victorian election. The UFU campaigned aggressively against the then-Coalition government, with about 720 firefighters distributing 300,000 how-to-vote cards at 109 polling booths and door-knocking across Victoria, the Ibac report said.
After Labor took office, resolving the dispute became a priority. Negotiations for a new enterprise agreement began in early 2015 but stalled, before breaking down altogether by 2016.
Andrews told Ibac the relationship between Garrett and the union had become so “dysfunctional” that she could play “no useful role in resolving this matter”. Instead, he asked the then special minister of state, Gavin Jennings, to take charge. (Andrews resigned as premier in 2023, while Jennings quit politics in 2020.)
The secretary of the department of Premier and Cabinet at the time – Chris Eccles – enlisted Bates to assist.
“At the time of the decision, the premier was facing internal political pressure, negative media attention and industrial unrest,” the report reads.
“Ibac found that the actions of the premier, minister Jennings and Mr Bates over this period were contrary to government policy, procedures, convention and their respective codes of conduct.”
Over four days in April 2016, Jennings, Bates and Marshall met a small group of UFU negotiators at rented meeting rooms and, then, a Melbourne hotel. An unnamed federal Labor senator acted as an intermediary.
At one point Jennings texted staff that he was “off doing my secret mission” and “secret business”.
When the deal was struck on 12 April, Jennings text Andrews: “Handshake has occurred – it’s done!”, to which he responded, “Very good”.
Ibac said photographs were also taken of the unnamed senator “with full champagne glasses in hand and sparkling wine bottles on the table, toasting towards the camera” with the UFU negotiators.
The next day came the Treasury Place meeting between Andrews and Marshall.
Phone calls at 4am
After the intervention, the agreement returned to the Fair Work Commission for conciliation. Text messages published by Ibac revealed the increasingly tense negotiations, as Marshall refused to compromise on key clauses.
On 23 May 2016, Andrews asked Jennings how mediation was progressing.
Jennings replied: “At 11 am he was convinced you were a treacherous c*** and I was a f***ing idiot … By lunchtime he was giving me the benefit of the doubt … but probably not for much longer.”
After the FWC reviewed the draft agreement, Marshall texted Jennings and a parliamentary secretary: “Love you guys … More important my members will … love Daniel.”
The Ibac report also revealed Marshall had “privileged access to senior members of government”. It said Marshall texted Jennings between 1am and 3am, while an adviser from the premier’s office said Andrews received calls from the Marshall at 4am.
Garrett resigned from cabinet in June 2016, as she opposed the agreement. When the CFA board refused to endorse it, it was dismissed and replaced. Its successors approved the deal. Much of the agreement was later replicated in an enterprise deal for MFB firefighters.
Calls for an Ibac with bite
Marshall on Wednesday described Ibac’s failure to make findings of corrupt conduct as “vindication”, and defended his actions as simply represented his members’ interests.
Andrews also issued a statement that noted: “For the record and the avoidance of any doubt, there are no findings in relation to corrupt conduct made about me, any other member of the government, or the public service. That is a fact.”
But integrity experts argue the report exposes a deeper problem with Victoria’s anti-corruption laws.
The Centre for Public Integrity said: “The narrow definition of corrupt conduct in the Ibac Act means that Ibac cannot make findings of corrupt conduct unless the conduct constitutes a relevant criminal offence, undermining one of the key purposes of the state’s anti-corruption agency and weakening its ability to secure public trust in the exercise of public power,” it said.
The organisation renewed its call for Victoria to broaden the definition of corrupt conduct so the watchdog can investigate and make findings about serious abuses of public power that fall short of criminal offending.
A Victorian parliamentary inquiry made the same recommendation – among others – which former premier Jacinta Allan accepted and committed to implementing after the November state election. Her successor, Ben Carroll, has put integrity at the centre of his leadership and vowed to strengthen Ibac – though he is yet to provide details.
Former Victorian ombudsman Deborah Glass said the laws “absolutely needs to change” and noted successive Ibac commissioners “have been saying so for years.”
“It’s hardly a vindication when conduct is described as serious and concerning, involving breaches of policies, codes and conventions. But this illustrates the mismatch between the public’s view of corruption when bad behaviour is exposed, and the legal definition in the Ibac Act,” she said.
Glass, whose final report as ombudsman in 2023 warned of “creeping politicisation” of the public service, said the Ibac report was part of a broader pattern.
“Politicisation is not simply the hiring of your political mates, it’s also the closing down of independent sources of impartial advice,” she said.
“So yes, this looks like yet another example of Andrews-era centralisation of power, marginalisation of independent voices and lack of transparency.”
