Victorian Premier Dan Andrews conspired with Bill Shorten’s crime gang, who control the Health Workers Union (HWU), to steal $3.4 million from taxpayers which is outlined in a special report named Operation Daintree which was published in April by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

It could best be described as a pork-barrelling type of fraud scam where an entity was registered (Health Education Federation – HEF) in the lead thief’s name (Diana Asmar) that had no assets to do training (provide occupational violence and aggression training to 575 health workers) that it was not registered or qualified to do. Then the entity (HEF) was given an initial government grant of $1.2 million with no tender because the lead thief (Diana Asmar) was in direct contact with an advisor from the Premier’s Private Office (PPO) who bullied public servants to approve the $1.2 million grant.

But there’s no corruption to see here people, or at least that is what Premier Dan Andrews is telling the media and anyone else who wants to listen. It worth noting that the UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has just resigned because he “bullied civil servants” but you won’t find Dan Andrews doing the same as he had one of his staff bully the public servants.

The fraud happened on the eve of the Victorian state election in November 2018 and money was paid to the HWU which Bill Shorten and his crime gang use as their personal slush fund. Bill Shorten was federal Labor leader at the time and the money would have been handy for the federal election a few months later in May 2019. Ironically Teflon Dan Andrews was exposed in March 2018 for fraudulently using $388,000 of public money during the party’s 2014 election campaign. (Click here to read more)

This article is a must read as it gives an indication of what the National Anti-Corruption is going to be like with all hearings in secret except for exception circumstances. Dan Andrews has been before the IBAC 4 times to give evidence at 4 different corruption investigations but the public has ever been able to see him on the witness stand, hear his evidence or even read the transcript and that is the way he likes it. And that is the way Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants it for the federal government as well, See No Evil, Hear No Evil. 

Bill Shorten’s crime gang are the same people that weaponized the death of federal Senator Kimberley Kitching to blackmail Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party for their own political and financial gain weeks before the 2022 federal election. (Click here to read more)

Below are direct quotes from the Operation Daintree report and the page numbers which you can read yourself by clicking here: But I will make a few more points first. I published an article on the 9trh of November titled “Premier Dan Andrews fraudulently approved $3.4million for Bill Shorten’s crime gang at the Health Workers Union” which starts off:

The reason Dan Andrews gave them the $3.4million was to gain their support within the Labor Party as Unions control the Labor Party. Dan Andrews is currently being investigated for alleged corruption by Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) because of the fraudulent grants.

The reason I know that Dan Andrews knew a large part of the money would be illegally siphoned off by Shorten’s crime gang is that everyone in the Labor Party and Union movement knows that Shorten’s crime gang has been stealing the HWU member’s money since they took control of the Union in 2012. The HWU is also known as the HSU – Victoria No. 1 Branch but they started using the HWU as a trading name when all their corruption was exposed during the Trade Union Royal Commission and Fair Work Commission hearings.

This matter deals with the fact that Premier Dan Andrews has been able to cover up corruption in his government because Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) is muzzled from having public hearings except in exceptional circumstances. This is important not only to Victorian voters who have an election in a few weeks but also to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission which at this point intends to copy the failed IBAC system of only having public hearings in exceptional circumstances. (Click here to read the full article)

Former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian would still be Premier if the NSW ICAC had secret hearings like the Victorian IBAC. A Tweet from October 2022:

If the NSW ICAC held their hearing into Gladys Berejiklian in secret she would still be NSW Premier today. She only resigned because the NSW ICAC told her they were about to hold a public hearing & she knew her lies & corruption were about to be exposed #auspol #NoSecrectHearings pic.twitter.com/2D2mPsNZUN

— Kangaroo Court of Australia – Shane Dowling (@Kangaroo_Court) October 20, 2022

Excerpts from the Operation Daintree report:

The secretary of the HWU lobbied a senior advisor in the Premier’s Private Office (PPO) and a senior advisor to the Health Minister in favour of the HEF being contracted to develop and deliver the training. The senior advisor to the Health Minister helped the HWU to shape an unsolicited proposal that HEF be contracted to deliver training to 575 healthcare workers. The senior advisor then submitted that proposal to DHHS for consideration. (From page 6)

1.2 The allegations

On 30 May 2019, IBAC received a complaint from an anonymous source. It alleged that the procurement process and awarding of a contract by DHHS to HEF for the provision of training to healthcare workers in November 2018 constituted serious corrupt conduct. The anonymous source alleged that:

(a) the contract value was more than $1 million, but no competitive process was followed

(b) the project was awarded to a single provider, HEF, which: – was newly formed and had no relevant experience – at the time of engagement was not a registered training organisation (RTO) – was not financially established and thereby posed a risk of non-delivery – did not have sound governance arrangements in place – had directors with executive officer positions at the HWU

(c) HEF was not on the training panel and would have been unlikely to qualify for inclusion

(d) a partial upfront payment was approved prior to delivery of any training, despite the finance department of DHHS advising to the contrary

(e) the contract was awarded less than a day before the government caretaker period commenced in 2018

IBAC determined the matter was a ‘protected disclosure complaint’ (now a ‘public interest disclosure’)2 and referred it to the Victorian Ombudsman for investigation under section 73 of the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2011 (IBAC Act) as the allegations, if proven, were capable of amounting to ‘improper conduct’. This was on the basis that what was then known fell below IBAC’s threshold for investigation.

On 27 November 2019, the Victorian Ombudsman notified IBAC under section 16E(4) of the Ombudsman Act 1973 that her investigation had identified evidence of pressure exerted on DHHS staff to award the contract to HEF and in their management of the contract.

This raised a reasonable suspicion of corrupt conduct by:

• the Victorian Premier, the Hon Daniel Andrews MP
• the Hon Jill Hennessy MP (former Minister for Health)
• the Hon Jenny Mikakos MP (former Minister for Health)
• ministerial staff working in the offices of the above ministers and the Premier.

IBAC then commenced Operation Daintree. Two further related complaints were made to IBAC in late 2020 (From page 4 and 5 of the Report)

Premier Dan Andrews has a memory like a sieve – from page 65

The Premier had no recollection of what he discussed with Ms Asmar, no recollection of any discussion with his advisors that led to this announcement and no awareness that they and the Minister for Health’s advisor had discussed a detailed proposal including costings ten days before the announcement that the HEF should deliver training to 1,000 workers over a four-year period.

It is highly likely that the Premier was informed of the commitment proposal as formulated by his advisors and conveyed the substance of the intended commitment to Ms Asmar when he met her before making the announcement. During his examination, the Premier ultimately accepted that he may have done so.

After the Premier realised that his recollection of what he announced was faulty he left open the possibility that he may have made a commitment to Ms Asmar but remained quite uncertain that what he announced amounted to a commitment. He maintained that what he said was not a ‘tender announcement’ and that if the union was to be the provider, he would have been very clear about that.

The sham training – from page 75

4.7.2 The delivery of the training in November and December 2019 HEF delivered pilot programs between 26 and 29 August 2019, at the Royal Children’s Hospital, and between 2 and 5 September 2019, at Bendigo Health, with a total of 34 participants. Each was subject to a series of evaluations, including with focus groups, participant surveys and evaluator observations.

Consolidated participant feedback was poor. For example, nearly 60 per cent of participants believed the trainers were not organised or prepared; nearly 80 per cent of participants believed the trainers did not have in-depth knowledge of occupational violence and aggression; and nearly 80 per cent believed the trainers did not provide a program that was relevant to the health sector.

The contractor who evaluated the pilot also had concerns, including about the length of the training and its objectives; the training content and lack of alignment with existing resources; and the trainers’ lack of expertise in the healthcare sector.

Findings – from page 6

The investigation found that a senior advisor to the Health Minister improperly intruded into the process of DHHS awarding the contract to the HEF. It also found that the decision by DHHS to contract with HEF without undertaking a competitive procurement process was driven by a belief of senior staff in that department that that was the minister’s and government’s preference, and by ongoing pressure from the ministerial advisor and secretary of the union.

There were serious concerns about the standard of training provided by HEF under the contract. However, intervention in 2019 and early 2020 by another advisor in the new Minister for Health’s office, on occasion at the request of a senior adviser in the PPO, dissuaded DHHS from taking steps to terminate the contract.

Ultimately, between the signing of the contract in October 2018 and the cessation of the training in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, HEF trained only 83 of the planned 575 staff. The quality of the training was poor. In total, $335,000 of the $1.2 million contract was actually paid to HEF.

The safeguards designed to ensure the integrity and fairness of the procurement process were bypassed. This meant that the government’s actual conflict of interest was not properly managed. The union was given privileged access and favourable treatment. The combined effect of these failings and unethical conduct resulted in a contract that should not have been entered into with the union and an outcome which was not in the public interest.

Misconduct that favours political, personal or organisational interests of people and entities in an office holder’s network, as the IBAC and the Victorian Ombudsman reported in Operation Watts, ‘corrode[s] standards of public governance, decision-making in the public interest, and trust in government. While it may fall short of ‘corrupt conduct’ as defined in the IBAC Act, it leaves the public sector vulnerable to significant risks of such conduct.

It’s my understanding that HWU fraudster Nick Katsis did the training. I published an article about Nick Katsis on the 20th of November 2022 titled “Premier Dan Andrews, Immigration consultant Nick Katsis, the $20 million HSU fraud and the IBAC corruption investigation“.

The initial grant was $1.2 million and the second grant was $2.2 million giving a total of $3.4 million but based on the Operation Daintree report the HWU only managed to collect $335,000 for training 83 people. But maybe more has been paid since their investigation.

The training of the 83 people works out to $4,036 per person for training that would have to be a few hours at most. But even if the training was a full day the true cost would have to be a lot less than $1000 per person. That’s over $3000 per person profit for the “Non-profit” Health Education Federation (HEF) that known fraudster Diana Asmar registered in her name along with 2 others..

People might think Dan Andrews is a great Premier, but they don’t know the real Dan Andrews. None of us do. Because Andrews has been protected by the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) with their secret hearings. If Dan Andrews was forced to give evidence in public like he should have been I doubt he would still be Premier because the voters would have seen the real Dan Andrews ducking and weaving questions he was forced to answer under oath.

Unfortunately Teflon Dan Andrews in in no hurry to fix the IBAC but when a similar scenario starts to play out at the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which it will at some stage, it will do huge damage to the credibility of the federal government, which it already is, until public hearings become the default position instead of secret hearings. 

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