Pressure continues to pile on Victoria's Labor government over its rorts-for-votes scandal, with the matter being sent to the auditor-general by the opposition.
State Ombudsman Deborah Glass found 21 past and present MPs breached parliamentary guidelines by wrongly approving $388,000 of taxpayer money spent on campaign staff.
Labor has since repaid the money.
"I'll be writing to Victoria's auditor-general so he can help uncover the truth and scale of what is arguably the biggest rort on Victorian taxpayers in recent history," shadow attorney-general John Pesutto told reporters on Friday.
Andrew Greaves will be asked to examine all of the government's legal costs, totalling $139,000, amassed as Labor tried to stop the investigation.
The auditor-general will also analyse the legal expenses of the Ombudsman's office and the president of the Legislative Council.
The referral adds to the opposition's existing demands for a select committee review and the Greens' call for the privileges committee - with the power to issue penalties - to step in.
Ms Glass noted in her report her investigation was hampered by the lower house claiming privilege, which meant MPs did not have to participate in the probe.
But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the scandal has been examined enough.
"That's entirely a matter for the Legislative Council, they do things in their own way," Mr Andrews told reporters in Wangaratta on Friday, when asked of plans for further investigation.
"But the Ombudsman has looked at these matters in great detail with all the information that she needed."
Sydney-based federal Labor MP Anthony Albanese said the scandal is a "beat-up".
"Let's get some reality in here; ALP staffers worked for the election of ALP members that they worked for," he told the Nine Network.
"It seems to me from a distance this is an enormous beat-up."
However, federal government minister Christopher Pyne rebutted the claim of a beat-up, saying what happened in Victoria was not just about staffers of Labor MPs working for the re-election of the Andrews Government.
"It was actually people being paid full-time to work as campaign organisers in other electorates across Victoria," Mr Pyne said.
As well as sending the matter to privileges, the Greens want still-serving MPs named in the report to be fined, for Premier Daniel Andrews to apologise to parliament, and for Labor to pay a $100,000 fine and cover the costs of the Ombudsman.
The government has vowed to implement all six of the Ombudsman's recommendations.
Share
