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No criminal campaigning by Vic Libs, Nats

Victoria Police will not be charging Liberal or Nationals MPs over allegations of using electoral staff for campaigning.

Victorian Liberal and Nationals MPs will not face a formal criminal investigation over allegations of using taxpayer-funded staff for campaigning during the 2014 election.

Deputy Leader James Merlino dobbed in 18 serving and former opposition MPs to police in July last year as the parties warred over Labor's use of electoral staff during the same election.

On Thursday Victoria Police said an assessment by the Fraud and Extortion Squad determined no criminal offence occurred and there would be no further action.

"This was a complex matter and given the high level of public interest, it was important that we took all necessary steps and time to come to a determination," the statement reads.

Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters it was not a waste of police time for them to look into Labor's allegations against their political opponents.

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"There was a belief that it was a proper matter for the police to investigate, they've done their job and I won't offer any comment beyond that," he told reporters on Thursday.

Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien disagreed, labelling it a "baseless complaint made by a government desperate to cover up their own red shirt rorts".

"It's a pathetic thing to do from frankly a government that's more interested in playing politics than protecting Victorians."

However, Mr O'Brien argued the Liberals' complaint over Labor's use of electorate staff in 2014 was justified, given police are still investigating.

The Liberals' complaint was made on the back of an Ombudsman investigation finding 21 past and present Labor MPs misused $388,000 of taxpayer money.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass concluded the MPs had not deliberately rorted the system, rather they thought it was within the guidelines to share the publicly-funded electorate officers.


2 min read

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Source: AAP



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