By Mitchell Clarke
Officer Senior Football Club president Nick McLennan, who worked as a tax payer funded parliamentary adviser, has been embroiled in the Adem Somyurek scandal.
In an explosive year-long investigation by 60 Minutes and The Age, Mr McLennan is accused of allegedly assisting Somyurek in carrying out branch-stacking operations.
The report said Mr McLennan was being paid $100,000 a year as a senior policy adviser to the now-resigned Minister, Marlene Khairouz, when he was handpicked by Somyurek – with a hefty pay increase – to allegedly inflate membership numbers across Labor branches, including in the south east.
In footage aired on 60 Minutes, the Officer man was filmed meeting with disgraced former Local Government and Small Business Minister Adem Somyurek, which the show claimed was to obtain cash to pay for fake Labor memberships.
The footage appeared to show the pair meeting in a suburban shopping centre carpark, where McLennan was purportedly seen leaning into the driver’s side window of Somyurek’s car before walking off with a blue folder.
“Well if he gets caught on the street he’d better not say he’s doing f*****g this stuff,” Somyurek said in recordings obtained by 60 Minutes.
Branch stacking, the practice of inflating membership numbers, has the potential to influence who is pre-selected as an election candidate.
The practice isn’t illegal – and would only be illegal if false information was provided – but threatens to undermine the election process.
Despite McLennan’s alleged role in the scheme, he was still subjected to a vile tirade by Somyurek, in a series of secret recordings aired on the program.
“You get a 30, 40 thousand dollar f*****g pay rise. You do a quarter the work you do in the electoral office because that’s literally harder work,” Somyurek allegedly said to McLennan in the recordings.
“And you’re not doing the factional stuff because that’s what you’re meant to be doing. You deserve to be f*****g punished.”
The Gazette repeatedly reached out to McLennan for comment, however he didn’t respond.
Officer Football Club vice president Lachlan Balzary wouldn’t comment when asked whether McLennan would step down from his current role as president.
“The club has no comment at this time,” Mr Balzary said.
Liberal Gembrook MP Brad Battin said the allegations against the State Government showed the party was “spending more time talking about themselves rather than representing their community”.
“It was shocking footage to see one of our local identities allegedly running money between parties to support branch stacking and allegations of corruption,” Mr Battin said.
“In a year where Coronavirus has already impacted local sports, this is another issue they did not need.”
Labor Eastern Victoria MP Harriet Shing said she was “glad to see that these serious matters have been referred to the authorities for inquiry and investigation”.
“I imagine that this is a view that many other people in the community also share,” Ms Shing added.
A decade ago, McLennan was involved in emailing a phoney letter to the Gazette, linked to the office of former Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato, which was meant to come from a Beaconsfield resident.
“Hey mate, here is a letter to the editors. It is directly from Tammy’s office. If you don’t want to send it let me know ASAP so I can have it done through someone else,” the letter read.
“Simply copy and paste it and send it.”
About five hours later, the letter was re-sent by the Beaconsfield resident, without the original preface from McLennan.
